2/24/24. “For years the annual Religious Education Congress in Los Angeles has been a regular source of liturgical distress as various innovations test the bounds of reverence, not to say sacrilege. This year as the congress unfolded on the West Coast, the genuine sacrilege took place on the East Coast, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. The “sacrilegious” – the apposite term of the cathedral rector – funeral for atheist transgender activist Cecilia Gentili was something of an ambush, with the surprised cathedral priests cutting it short and offering a Mass of Reparation for the outrages afterwards.
Father James Martin, SJ, to no one’s great surprise, had been invited to serve as ringmaster for that circus but, conveniently for him, he was on the other coast for the congress. It’s a pity the organizers didn’t think to invite Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, who might have found some suitable passages from his theo-erotic book Mystical Passion to read at the Gentili funeral, the deceased being described enthusiastically by one eulogist as the “mother of all whores.” A touch of cardinalitial erotic accompaniment would have fit it quite nicely.
About the funeral, plenty of comment has been offered elsewhere, with the flamboyant entourage of the deceased now disgruntled to have learned that instead of a funeral Mass, they got a simple Liturgy of the Word before the casket and congregation were hurried out the door. At the time, no one seemed to notice the difference, their liturgical piety apparently having become rather attenuated…
Back in Rome, the synod apparatus announced that it would convene a meeting of 300 parish priests from around the world for several days of synodal discussions on synodality. The synodocrats were embarrassed last year when it turned out that they forgot to invite any parish priests to the October assembly. They won’t be invited this year either, but there will be a sort of not-yet-ready-for-prime-time version for them this spring.
Cardinal McElroy is correct to be unsure whether the flagship synodality project will outlive Pope Francis. Likely not, as synodality has brought the Orthodox to mutual excommunications and fractured the Anglican Communion. In the Catholic world, synodality in Germany flirts with schism and for the Syro-Malabar Church has brought violence into the sanctuary. It’s not an auspicious time for synodality, even if the Roman Curia were not scheming behind the backs of the synodal members.
+ Edward Feser: What Counts as Magisterial Teaching? “Popes speak infallibly when they either proclaim some doctrine ex cathedra, or reiterate some doctrine that has already been taught infallibly by virtue of being a consistent teaching of the ordinary magisterium of the Church for millennia. Even when papal teaching is not infallible, it is normally owed “religious assent.” However, the Church recognizes exceptions…”
Catholic Critique 