NYPD officers stand in line at the funeral of NYPD officer Jonathan Diller at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church on March 30, 2024, in Massapequa, New York. Officer Diller was killed on March 25 when he was shot in Queens after approaching an ille… […]
Bishop Peter Muhich of the Diocese of Rapid City, South Dakota. / Credit: Diocese of Rapid City
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 17, 2024 / 16:13 pm (CNA).
The Diocese of Rapid City on Saturday announced the death of Bishop Peter Muhich at the ag… […]
St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. / Richard Trois via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0).
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 17, 2024 / 13:56 pm (CNA).
The pastor of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City says the church has offered a Mass of Reparation after a controversial irreverent funeral service was held there this week for a well-known transgender advocate.
The Manhattan cathedral hosted the Feb. 15 funeral service for Cecilia Gentili, an activist who helped to decriminalize sex work in New York, lobbied for “gender identity” to be added as a protected class to the state’s human rights laws, and was a major fundraiser for transgender causes. Gentili was a man who identified as a woman.
Throughout the liturgy, the presider, Father Edward Dougherty, referred to Gentili with feminine pronouns and described the trans-identifying man as “our sister.” Additionally, during the prayers of the faithful, the reader prayed for so-called gender-affirming health care, while attendees frequently and approvingly referred to Gentili as the “mother of whores.”
On Saturday, Rev. Enrique Salvo, the pastor of St. Patrick’s, said in a statement on the website of the Archdiocese of New York that Church officials shared in the “outrage over the scandalous behavior at a funeral here at St. Patrick’s Cathedral earlier this week.”
“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,” Salvo said.
“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,” the priest wrote.
“At [Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s] directive, we have offered an appropriate Mass of Reparation,” Salvo said.
Several mainstream media outlets had framed the event as a breakthrough occasion and a sign of the Catholic Church shifting its teaching — or at least its tone — on sexuality and human anthropology.
Time magazine described the fact that a funeral service for a trans activist was held in a Catholic cathedral as “no small feat,” while The New York Times described the service as “an exuberant piece of political theater.”
Organizers reportedly did not disclose to the cathedral that Gentili, who died Feb. 6 at age 52, was a biological man who identified as a woman.
“I kept it under wraps,” Ceyeye Doroshow, the service’s organizer, told The New York Times.
Shane MacGowan’s funeral Mass took place Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, at St. Mary of the Rosary Church in Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland. / Credit: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
CNA Staff, Dec 14, 2023 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
A Catholic pr… […]
Indi Gregory. / Credit: Christian Concern
CNA Staff, Dec 1, 2023 / 11:55 am (CNA).
The funeral for Indi Gregory, the 8-month-old baby who lost her life last month after an end-of-life legal battle, was held at Nottingham Cathedral in England on… […]
Coffins with the LGBT flag in Aguascalientes cathedral in Mexico. / Credit: María Miranda Franco/Metropolitano Aguascalientes
ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 17, 2023 / 19:00 pm (CNA).
The vice president of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Gus… […]
Father Mark Beard, pastor of St. Helena Catholic Church in Amite City, Louisiana, died in a car accident Aug. 2, 2023. / Credit: Diocese of Baton Rouge
St. Louis, Mo., Aug 8, 2023 / 05:00 am (CNA).
A Louisiana priest who was killed in a car acc… […]
A view of the nave of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels where the funeral Mass for Bishop David O’Connell will be celebrated / David Leigh Ellis|Wikipedia|CC BY-SA 3.0
Boston, Mass., Feb 24, 2023 / 11:17 am (CNA).
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has announced the funeral arrangements for the late Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, who was murdered in his Hacienda Heights home on Feb. 18.
Three days of services will be held for O’Connell, beginning on Wednesday, March 1.
On Wednesday, there will be a memorial Mass for O’Connell at St. John Vianney Catholic Church, 1345 Turnbull Canyon Rd. in Hacienda Heights, at 7 p.m. PST. The Mass will be livestreamed here.
There will be a public viewing on Thursday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels at 555 West Temple St. in Los Angeles. The viewing will take place from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
A vigil Mass will be held following the public viewing at 7 p.m. and will be livestreamed both here and here.
O’Connell’s funeral Mass will be held on Friday, March 3, at the same Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels at 11 a.m. local time. The funeral Mass will be livestreamed both here and here.
O’Connell, who was known as “Bishop Dave,” served the San Gabriel Pastoral Region of the archdiocese, which covers East Los Angeles through the San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys.
Born in 1953 in County Cork, Ireland, he was ordained a priest in 1979 in Dublin, Ireland. O’Connell then began serving in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and held many different positions during his priesthood, in which he ministered to immigrants and those affected by both gang violence and poverty.
Pope Francis named him an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2015.
O’Connell was pastor at St. Frances Cabrini Parish when the violent 1992 L.A. riots took place after the acquittal of four police officers who had been videotaped beating an unarmed black man, Rodney King.
He worked to restore trust between law enforcement and residents by bringing the two together in people’s homes for dialogue.
“That was part of our work as a Church, to try to provide spaces for conversations,” he told CNA in a 2020 interview. “And we thought we really had achieved a lot of progress. Killings were way down in south Los Angeles. There was a trust built up between LAPD and residents. This level of trust has helped us over many different crises over the last almost 30 years to be able to talk things through.”
Father Jay Cunnane, pastor of St. Cornelius Parish in Long Beach, California, and a close friend to O’Connell, told EWTN News Nightly that the bishop had a “great heart” for people on the margins of society, specifically immigrants and the poor.
Cunnane called O’Connell “an effective organizer” for those on the margins.
When he heard the news of O’Connell’s murder, Cunnane said he was “speechless” and “shocked.”
“I’m still sort of stunned. But grateful to God for having had all those years a good friend to walk the road with,” he said.
That interview can be seen below.
In a Wednesday press conference, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón said that Carlos Medina of Torrance, the suspect in custody, has admitted to murdering the bishop.
It was revealed in a press conference Monday that Medina is the husband of O’Connell’s housekeeper, who remains unnamed. Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Sheriff Robert Luna said at that press conference that Medina had done work at the bishop’s residence as well.
It’s currently unclear what the motive for the killing was. Bail was set at $2 million.
Cardinal George Pell’s coffin in front of some of the cardinals who concelebrated his funeral Mass on Jan. 14, 2023 / Alan Koppschall/CNA
Vatican City, Jan 14, 2023 / 07:50 am (CNA).
Catholics traveled from near and far to attend the funeral Mass of Cardinal George Pell in St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday.
The Australian cardinal died in Rome Jan. 10 from a cardiac arrest following a hip surgery. He was 81.
His Jan. 14 funeral, held at the Altar of the Chair, was filled to capacity, with extra chairs added at the last minute to accommodate people standing as far back as the Vatican basilica’s main altar.
“A man of God and a man of the Church, he was characterized by a deep faith and great steadfastness of doctrine, which he always defended without hesitation and with courage, concerned only with being faithful to Christ,” Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re said about Pell in his homily for the funeral.
“As he noted many times, the weakening of faith in the Western world and the moral crisis of the family grieved him,” Re said. “To God, who is good and rich in mercy, we entrust this brother of ours, praying that God will welcome him into the peace and intimacy of his love.”
Pell’s brother, David Pell, and cousin Chris Meney, together with other family members, priests, and religious, traveled from Australia to be at the funeral.
Cardinal George Pell’s funeral Mass beginning now. Pell’s brother, David, is seated near the front.
(📷 Alan Koppschall/CNA) pic.twitter.com/WCOTHv8d8H
— Hannah Brockhaus (@HannahBrockhaus) January 14, 2023
Michael Casey, Pell’s former secretary who now works at the Australian Catholic University, was also in attendance.
From Rome, Holy See diplomats, students, and priests, also came to pray for Pell’s repose. Seminarians of the Pontifical North American College attended the funeral Mass immediately following their audience with Pope Francis the same morning.
American author George Weigel, a longtime friend of Cardinal Pell, traveled from the United States for the funeral.
The Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the deacon of the College of Cardinals, and concelebrated by cardinals and bishops.
Pell’s private secretary during his years in Rome, Father Joseph Hamilton, and archbishop Georg Gänswein, the longtime secretary of Pope Benedict XVI, also concelebrated.
Pope Francis arrived at the end of the Mass to perform the rite of final commendation and farewell, as is his custom for the funeral of a cardinal.
“May God unite his soul with those of all the saints and faithful departed,” the pope prayed. “May he be given a merciful judgement so that, redeemed from death, freed from punishment, reconciled to the Father, carried in the arms of the Good Shepherd, he may deserve to enter fully into everlasting happiness in the company of the eternal King together with all the saints.”
Francis sprinkled holy water. A priest incensed the coffin as the choir and congregation sang the Marian antiphon Sub Tuum Praesidium.
Applause broke out as Pell’s coffin was carried from St. Peter’s Basilica.
The cardinal will be buried in his former cathedral, St. Mary’s, in Sydney, Australia.
The day before his funeral, a visitation was held for Pell in the Church of Santo Stefano degli Abissini inside the Vatican.
The Gospel for Cardinal Pell’s funeral Mass was from Luke 12, about the vigilant and faithful servants: “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival,” Luke 12:37 says.
The Responsorial Psalm was from Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
In his homily, Re remarked on Pell’s unexpected death, and on his recent attendance at the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI.
“Despite his 81 years, he seemed to be in good health,” he said. “Hospitalized for hip surgery, heart complications ensued, causing his death.”
“Enlightened and comforted by faith in the risen Christ, we are gathered around this altar and the body of Cardinal Pell to entrust his soul to God, that he may be received into the immensity of his love in life without end.”
Re described Pell as a “strong-willed and decisive protagonist, characterized by the temper of a strong character, which at times could appear harsh.”
The cardinal’s premature death, Re said, has left us dismayed, but “there is only room in our hearts for hope.”
Pope Francis and the Vatican were going to be under a microscope during the days between Benedict XVI’s passing and his interment. There was never any question of avoiding it. The period, however, turned pretty […]
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