Opinion: There’s no compassion, humanity or Christianity in this statement from the Archdiocese of New York.
The day after Valentine’s Day, a massive, fabulous funeral was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York to honor the late, great Cecila Gentili. It was a service filled with love and tears of laughter and sadness, not to mention a performance by actor and singer Billy Porter (the two had been castmates on the groundbreaking television series “Pose”). St. Patrick’s Cathedral is perhaps the most famous Catholic church outside of the Vatican. Gentili’s friends chose it for her funeral for that reason — her friend who planned the funeral said that because Gentili was “magic for our community … that’s why I picked a place as iconic as St. Patrick’s.”
“Except on Easter Sunday, we don’t have a crowd that’s this well turned out,” the priest proclaimed, as hundreds of queer people came together to mourn the loss of a leader, a sister, a woman who was transgender and who clawed herself out of a hostile homeland, sex slavery and poverty to become an activist, actress and inspiration to the many vulnerable people she fought for every waking moment of her life.
But the Very Rev. Enrique Salvo, pastor of St. Patrick’s, did not mince words in a statement he issued from the Archdiocese of New York’s office only days later.
“Thanks to so many who have let us know they share our outrage over the scandalous behavior at a funeral here at St. Patrick’s Cathedral earlier this week,” the statement read. “The Cathedral only knew that family and friends were requesting a funeral Mass for a Catholic and had no idea our welcome and prayer would be degraded in such a sacrilegious and deceptive way. That such a scandal occurred at ‘America’s Parish Church’ makes it worse; that it took place as Lent was beginning, the annual forty-day struggle with the forces of sin and darkness, is a potent reminder of how much we need the prayer, reparation, repentance, grace, and mercy to which this holy season invites us.”
We can’t be certain what precisely Salvo meant by issuing this statement, but its words are condescending and judgmental; to use the word “scandal” about the expressions of mourning and celebration at the funeral of a trans person lacks compassion and humanity. There’s nothing Christian about it.
