Editor’s note: This article was updated on February 20, 2024.
NEW YORK (LifeSiteNews) –– Within one day, over 9,000 people signed a petition urging Cardinal Timothy Dolan to exorcise St. Patrick’s Cathedral after a blasphemous funeral of an atheist transgender activist was held in the iconic church last week. Signatures on the petition have now passed the 10,000 mark.
LifeSiteNews launched the petition after St. Patrick’s Cathedral hosted a scandalous and sacrilegious funeral for the atheist LGBT activist “Cecilia Gentili,” a man who falsely believed he is a woman, which has sparked outrage among faithful Catholics.
In an apparent blasphemous reference to the true St. Cecilia, a virgin who was martyred for refusing to renounce the Catholic faith, Gentili, a former prostitute, was eulogized as “this whore. This great whore. St. Cecilia, Mother of all Whores!” at his funeral service, with the New York Times celebrating the funeral as “an event with no likely precedent in Catholic history.”
🚨Anti-Catholic group of trans “activists” stage a mockery of the Christian faith INSIDE St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC:
The mob staged a supposed funeral service for Cecilia Gentili, a transgender, atheist prostitute during who they eulogized as: “This whore. This great whore.… pic.twitter.com/7w0wmifzkH
— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) February 16, 2024
According to the photos provided by the Times, “Mass cards and a picture near the altar showed a haloed Ms. Gentili surrounded by the Spanish words for ‘transvestite,’ ‘whore,’ ‘blessed’ and ‘mother’ above the text of Psalm 25.”
One of Gentili’s friends prayed to God for access to “gender-affirming health care” during the intercessions. At one point, a participant at the funeral changed the lyrics during the “Ave Maria” and sang “Ave Cecilia” while dancing through the aisles, the New York Times reports.
The Times described the funeral as “a celebration of her life and an exuberant piece of political theater.”
The organizers of the funeral viewed the event as a political statement against the traditional Catholic faith. They told the New York Times that they hope the celebrations of “Cecilia” will be remembered as an important moment in the history of the “LGBT community,” similar to the 1989 protests where activists chained themselves to the pews in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in protest to the Catholic Church’s stance on homosexuality.
In a press release published on February 17, the communications office of St. Patrick’s Cathedral claimed that “it 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.”
“At the Cardinal’s directive, we have offered an appropriate Mass of Reparation,” the Office stated.
One of the transgender activists said that they deceived St. Patrick’s Cathedral by hiding Gentili’s “transgender identity.”
However, the two priests who were assigned by the Cathedral to hold the funeral service, Father Edward Dougherty and Father Andrew King, did not offer any rebuke of the sacrilegious and blasphemous acts that took place during the service.
Two Catholic priests — Fr. Edward Dougherty, M.M., & Fr. Andrew King (both assigned to @StPatsNYC) — said nothing when a notorious trans activist was celebrated as “St. Cecilia, mother of all whores” & commended for “her” work to ensure “that sex workers are free.”
Abominable. pic.twitter.com/vytmTAKOKG
— Matt Gaspers (@MattGaspers) February 18, 2024
Dougherty referred to Gentili, a man who suffered from gender confusion, as “our sister Cecilia” during the service.
During his opening remarks, he said, “Except on Easter Sunday, we don’t really have a crowd that is this well turned out,” to which the transgender activist in the crowd responded with loud cheers and claps.
Dougherty, who was appointed to be a pastor of St. Patrick’s Cathedral by Cardinal Dolan, said that the cardinal asked him “to bring a missionary dimension to the parish.”
The New York Times noted in their report that both Cardinal Dolan and Pope Francis have taken “steps toward inclusivity” of “transgender people” in recent years, for instance, permitting them to be godparents or witnesses at Catholic weddings, as well as allowing homosexual “parents” to have their children baptized.
READ: Cardinal Müller: Pope Francis allowing ‘trans’ people to be godparents is ‘confusing and harmful’