NEW YORK — Cardinal Timothy Dolan defended the priests working at St. Patrick’s Cathedral this week, saying the funeral held there for a transgender activist came as a surprise and that the prelates “knew nothing about this that was coming up.”

“We didn’t know the background,” Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said on this week’s “Conversation with Cardinal Dolan” on The Catholic Channel of Sirius XM and The Catholic Faith Network. “We don’t do FBI checks on people who want to be buried.”

In his first public comments following last week’s scandalous display inside the cathedral, Dolan added the staff at the cathedral that handles funerals always try to be welcoming.

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Dolan said, “All they know is somebody called and said, ‘Our dear friend died. We’d love to have the funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It would be a great source of consolation. She’s a Catholic. It would be a great source of consolation for us, her family and friends.’ And of course, the priest at the cathedral said, ‘Come on in. You’re more than welcome.’”

The Feb. 15 funeral, which drew an estimated 1,000 people, was held in memory of Cecilia Gentili, an artist and transgender activist known for her advocacy on behalf of sex workers and the LGBTQ+ community. Gentili, 52, had once served as director of policy at the GMHC (formerly the Gay Men’s Health Crisis) and founder of Trans Equity Consulting, an advocacy group.

A self-proclaimed atheist, Gentili’s funeral was more performance art than a religious ceremony. It also included foul language and inappropriate attire by many in attendance, something that drew outrage across social media.

As a result, the cathedral, under Dolan’s direction, conducted a “Mass of Reparation” this past Saturday, a liturgical celebration offered to make amends or repair for sins committed against God and humanity.

Ceyenne Doroshow, a friend who organized the funeral, said Gentili’s family had kept her background “under wraps” from church officials because they feared the archdiocese would not host a funeral for a transgender person.

Doroshow added that Gentili’s family and friends wanted the funeral to be held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral because “it is an icon, just like her.”

Dolan called the eulogies and what the mourners did a sign of “disrespect” towards the church.

“It was very, very sad,” he added.

Dolan said the priests made a last-second decision at the beginning of the service not to celebrate a funeral Mass, but a funeral service instead that did not include handing out Holy Communion.

“I applaud our priests who made a quick decision that, ‘Uh oh, with behavior like this, we can’t do a Mass,” he said. “We’ll do the Liturgy of the Word, which is the readings, and the sermon, and the prayers of petition, and the Our Father, and then we’ll stop it. The Mass is not going to go on,’” Dolan said. “Bravo for our cathedral people, who knew nothing about this that was coming up.”

The funeral received numerous comments from Father James Martin, a priest who is outspoken on LGBT issues. Initially, Martin called the liturgy “wonderful.”

After the controversy erupted, Martin posted a message on X, formerly Twitter, that while he had not watched the whole funeral service, “some actions I've seen struck me as, while perhaps to the congregation joyful and celebratory, disrespectful of the sacred space that is St. Patrick’s Cathedral.”

Gentili’s supporters demanded an apology for “cutting short” the service and the comments the archdiocese subsequently put out.

“The current narrative from St. Patrick’s Cathedral leadership that they were manipulated by funeral organizers of the identity of Ms. Gentili is simply not true,” Gays and Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society said in a statement. “Funeral organizers advised cathedral staff to look up Cecilia Gentili, her work and the community she served. To now place responsibility on the funeral organizers to have affirmatively disclosed the gender identity of their loved one is imposing a burden upon the mourners that would not be expected of a non-transgender person.”

Clemente Lisi is the executive editor of Religion Unplugged. He previously served as deputy head of news at the New York Daily News and a longtime reporter at The New York Post. Follow him on X @ClementeLisi.