NEW YORK (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Timothy Dolan commended the priests who presided over the sacrilegious “transgender funeral” for a notorious LGBT activist at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, saying that they acted “extraordinarily well.”
“I think our cathedral acted extraordinarily well,” Dolan said in a recent podcast episode of Conversation with Cardinal Dolan.
He praised the priests who held the funeral for celebrating a Liturgy of the Word instead of a Holy Mass with the irreverent crowd present, though the priests permitted numerous blasphemies and sacrileges throughout the scandalous event.
“Again, I applaud our priests, who made a quick decision saying, ‘Uh oh, with behavior like this, we can’t do a Mass, we’ll do the Liturgy of the Word … and then we’ll stop it,’” Dolan stated.
However, at the beginning of the funeral, Fr. Edward Dougherty, who officiated the event, jokingly said, “Except on Easter Sunday, we don’t really have a crowd that is this well turned out.”
In a video from the event, Dougherty can be heard being told by someone that there should only be a funeral service and “no Mass” after the crowd of transgender activists erupted into loud applause and cheers.
Dougherty continuously spoke of the atheist transgender and prostitution activist, known as “Cecilia Gentili” – a man who “identified” as a woman – as “she” and indicated that Gentili was on the way to heaven.
As LifeSiteNews reported regarding Dougherty:
He also tolerated the innumerable blasphemies and mockeries of the Catholic faith throughout the service, during which the Mother of God was mocked (replacing the words “Ave Maria” with the chant “Ave Cecilia,” as if Gentili was a saint and comparable to Our Lady). With the priest sitting nearby, one homosexual couple exchanged a kiss on the altar. When the “husband” of Gentili called the deceased an “angel,” Dougherty clapped his hands in approval. Another speaker called Gentili “our saint” who worked so that “sex workers are free.”
At certain points during the service, Dougherty could be heard laughing at the pranks of the audience. On the high altar of St. Patrick’s, “transgenders” were hugging and kissing during the remembrance speeches. One friend proclaimed Gentili as “this wh–re, this great wh–re” and “Saint Cecilia” to a huge outburst of applause. The crowd and organizers of the funeral event turned it into a political rally complete with cheers, catcalls, and intentions for “gender-affirming health care.” This blasphemous chant filled the entire cathedral as Gentili’s coffin was carried down the aisle, accompanied by Dougherty, who had stated at the end: “Let us take leave of our sister Cecilia.” He added, “One day we shall joyfully greet her again.”
Dolan nevertheless praised the priest and the cathedral staff, saying, “Bravo for our cathedral people who knew nothing about this that was coming up.”
Here’s Fr. Edward Dougherty (according to TIME) officiating the funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for trans activist and prostitute Cecilia Gentili, joking, “Except on Easter Sunday, we don’t really have a crowd that is this well turned out,” to which the crowd of trans… pic.twitter.com/3gYehwdxcq
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) February 16, 2024
He said that the cathedral staff was told by the organizers of the funeral Gentili was a Catholic who wanted to have his funeral service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Dolan referred to Gentili as “a woman” during the podcast.
READ: Cardinal Dolan endorses Fr. James Martin’s new LGBT activism group
“We didn’t know the background; we don’t do FBI checks on people who want to be buried,” Dolan said.
“Our policy at the cathedral is to be as open and welcoming to anybody who wants to be buried here, and we had absolutely no idea about this.”
Canon law requires that Catholic funerals be denied to unrepentant “manifest sinners who cannot be granted ecclesiastical funerals without public scandal of the faithful.”
Dolan confirmed that a Mass of Reparation for the sacrilegious funeral was held in the cathedral. However, according to a Catholic laywoman who spoke to LifeSiteNews, Dolan told her that “they did it on the QT (quiet) so it wouldn’t be disrupted by those protesters” – i.e., the Mass was celebrated privately.
READ: EXCLUSIVE: Cardinal Dolan praises priest who presided at ‘trans’ funeral in New York cathedral
The same laywoman also said that Dolan called Dougherty “a hero” because “he stopped the (funeral) Mass.”
When she objected that she had watched the entire service and that it was not stopped, Dolan said, “Then it went on without him,” and the cardinal turned around and walked away.
Dolan furthermore mentioned that Harrison Butker, an NFL player for the Kansas City Chiefs and a devout Catholic, personally wrote him a letter expressing his dismay over the sacrilegious funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
LifeSiteNews has started a petition asking Dolan to exorcise St. Patrick’s Cathedral following the blasphemous funeral, which has reached over 12,000 signatures to date.