A Catholic priest was punished over a pop star’s music video. Here’s what happened
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The music video opens with a shot of an ornate Catholic altar. The camera then pans across a cotton candy-colored coffin, before showing candles, crosses and angel figurines.
Finally, pop star Sabrina Carpenter appears in a pink hearse in front of a church. She eventually gets out wearing a short black dress and singing about feeling so much better now that a former love connection has left her life.
The video, which is for Carpenter’s song “Feather,” was partly filmed in a Catholic Church in Brooklyn, Our Lady of Mount Carmel-Annunciation Parish. That’s notable because, although it has much in common with promotional material for other pop songs, it has very little in common with the activities that typically take place in a church.
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Soon after the video was released on Halloween, Bishop Robert J. Brennan, who leads the Diocese of Brooklyn, announced that he’d be conducting an investigation into why Carpenter’s team was allowed to use the sacred space for such secular purposes.
In a statement to Catholic News Agency, the diocese described Bishop Brennan as “appalled” by the video.
“The parish did not follow diocesan policy regarding the filming on church property, which includes a review of the scenes and script,” the statement said.
After his investigation, Bishop Brennan relieved the church’s pastor, Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello, “of his administrative oversight of the parish,” The New York Times reported.
Monsignor Gigantiello posted an apology for approving the music video filming on the church’s Facebook page.
“I offer my sincere apologies to the Bishop, the Diocese, my faithful parishioners and all of you for this shameful representation, which I whole-heartedly renounce. I ask that following the very example of Christ’s forgiveness, you find it possible to forgive my oversight in this unfortunate matter,” he wrote.
He continued, “In an effort to further strengthen the bonds between the young creative artists who make up a large part of this community and the parish, I agreed to the filming after a general search of the artists involved did not reveal anything questionable. ... The parish staff and I were not aware that anything provocative was occurring in the church nor were we aware that faux coffins and other funeral items would be placed in the sanctuary.”
In addition to reprimanding Monsignor Gigantiello, Bishop Brennan led a “Mass of Reparation” at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in order to repair the harm caused by the music video controversy, according to The New York Times.
The director of the music video did not respond to requests for comment from the Times.
The video has nearly 12 million views on YouTube as of Tuesday afternoon.
