On Thursday, St. Patrick’s Cathedral held a memorial for Cecilia Gentili, an atheist, transgender activist, actress, and former sex worker. The service drew over 1,000 mourners, hundreds of whom were transgender and desecrated the holy space by wearing items of clothing such as “glittery miniskirts and halter tops [and] fishnet stockings,” reported The New York Times. The sacred space was further desecrated with the Spanish words for “transvestite,” “whore,” “blessed,” and “mother” — paired with the text of Psalm 25 — encircling an image of a halo-adorned Gentili displayed near the altar.
Despite the Catholic Church’s increasing kowtowing to secular, anti-Christian mores, its acceptance of a funeral service for the high-profile transgender activist is nevertheless surprising.
At the height of the AIDS crisis just a generation ago, St. Patrick’s Cathedral was a battleground between gay rights activists and a Catholic Church strongly opposed to homosexuality and the use of condoms, leading activists to stage protests in the cathedral’s aisles and chain themselves to its pews. The New York Archdiocese also famously denied public funerals for many high-profile members of the mafia in the past, such as Paul Castellano, despite their being devout Catholics.
Whether the church administration was aware of Gentili’s background when it agreed to host ‘her’ funeral is unclear, as Joseph Zwilling, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York’s spokesperson, hasn’t responded to inquiries on the matter.
