Cecilia Gentili: May She Rest in Peace, Because the Roman Catholic Archdiocese is Not at Peace

Cecilia Gentili, a transgender activist, actor and legislative lobbyist, was honored at a Feb. 15 funeral packed with mourners in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the mother church of the Archdiocese of New York. 

According to reporter Aleja Hertzler-McCain of religionnews.com, "Cecilia was a transgender activist born in Argentina. She moved to the U.S. in 2000, experiencing homelessness and addiction while she supported herself as a sex worker. Later, Gentili worked at a health center and for Trans Equity Consulting, where she worked with HIV+ people, trans people, sex workers, incarcerated people and immigrants. On Feb. 6, 2024, at the age of 52 years old, she died of unspecified causes. According to press reports, she successfully sued the Trump administration when it tried to roll back the Affordable Care Act and lobbied for the New York State Gender Expression and Discrimination Act. When Gentili died, she had been working to decriminalize sex work in New York.”

While the funeral was being held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, from reports in the press, the Archdiocese of NY changed it’s tune about the service in the middle of the funeral itself: "In the livestream of the funeral, a hot microphone caught someone telling the funeral’s celebrant, the Rev. Edward Dougherty, to conduct only a shorter funeral service, instead of a funeral Mass. 

Ceyenne Doroshow, an organizer of the funeral, whom GQ profiled in 2020 as the ‘godmother’ of the movement for Black trans lives, told Religion News Service she holds Cardinal Dolan responsible for ‘inciting  hate,’ leading to the flood of threats she’s received since the archdiocese spoke out against the funeral.’”

"Initially, the Archdiocese of New York seemed to defend holding the funeral, saying that every funeral at St. Patrick’s was for a sinner. “The Church has a sacred obligation to bury the dead. It is a corporal work of mercy,” Joseph Zwilling, an archdiocesan spokesperson, told The Pillar on the evening of Feb. 16.”

But then the conservative Catholic, anti-LGBTQIA2S+ backlash started in earnest, and has not abated as of when I’m writing this blog entry. Cardinal Dolan is now saying that the archdiocese feels “misled” about the Gentili, saying that he did not know the background of the person who died.

Here’s a link to the article: https://religionnews.com/2024/02/23/backlash-to-trans-activists-st-patricks-funeral-reveals-deep-fault-lines/

Herein lies the problem and promise of the Catholic church, with Francis as Pope: While Pope Francis has been working hard of late, promoting gay couples to have our unions (our marriage) blessed by priests, ergo the church, there are forces, like Cardinal Dolan, and other anti-LGBTQIA2S+ Catholics who are against such a blessing. And what is extra-problematic is many of those who are anti-LGBTQIA2S+ are the ones who defend the church, even in the face of clergy abuses of the past. As the Pope tries to widen the portal of who can be part of church life, blessing same-sex couples, the forces are strong in the church to not take it to the next step: change in dogma and doctrine, in which LGBTQIA2S+ people are recognized as full participants in the Christian faith, according to the practices of the Catholic church.

Forward together, not one step back.

May it be so.