You do
not hijack the church's sound system to drown out the organ. You can usually agree with the priest what music is played at a funeral, although the priest will judge if it's suitable or not. Secular music is sometimes permitted but generally is not - however this sounds like a gospel so I guess there's a slight point for that. (In the full video you can hear the song cut in and out, it's not just edited over - it sounds like there was a bit of a scuffle over the aux cable).
You don't get up and start the ceremony in a Catholic funeral. This is a huge no-no. The funeral is lead by the Priest, because it is a Requiem Mass. This is not a nightclub you are MC'ing. This is also not a "homegoing ceremony" because that's an entirely different Church's tradition and if you wanted that you should have gone to a different church. Also, you don't applaud during a Mass.
You can see the clergy getting distressed by this and intervening to try and stop the ceremony going on as this crowd have planned, but obviously the cathedral is crowded out with non-Catholics so they don't want anything kicking off.
You also don't do eulogies during a Catholic funeral, even if you're Billy Porter. You tell the Priest about that person's life and the Priest will do a homily, which is like a eulogy but specifically relating that person's life to Biblical teachings. You can do a Bible reading, but eulogies do not happen in Mass. It's before or after the ceremony, like at a wake. You certainly don't start talking about yourself or the congregation. Also men are supposed to uncover their heads in church.
You
can have solo singers during Mass, but typically they'd sing a hymn rather than a contemporary spiritual piece. The get picky over Protestant hymns and like to pre-vet them to make sure there's nothing contrary to Catholic teachings in the hymn, and I don't think this was planned. (Billy Porter also isn't singing very well).
The first actual Catholic bit of this. You
don't get up and mingle while the Priest is speaking.
This is a shit show, you rise in silence and then sing the hymn as indicated (it seems like the congregation are not singing and are still milling about and chatting).
The Priest is waiting for everyone to be seated. IMO he's panicking a bit so is trying to lighten things up by observing that the crowd is "well turned out" (aka in fancy dress. It's worth noting you're supposed to dress modestly for a Catholic funeral and cover your shoulders, and I spotted a lot of strapless dresses).
You absolutely do not get up and start whooping and hollering and chanting the name of the deceased. During this you can hear the priest's mic picking up the conversation he's having - something along the lines of "we'll have some funeral service moments, no Mass, just a Final Commendation and then go". A Requiem Mass would include the Eucharist (Holy Communion) and clearly the clergy are looking to avoid as much trouble as possible. God only knows what some of these people would have done to the Host if they'd tried to do Eucharist. The Final Commendation is how a Requiem Mass is ended.
There's a prayer and then the first reader does what they're supposed to, and does a lovely reading from the Old Testament Book of Wisdom. They're also dressed appropriately. They seem Hispanic so I assume they actually know how you're supposed to behave in a Catholic Church. Then a soloist who's part of the church leads the congregation in (not) singing My Shepherd Is The Lord, quite beautifully.
Unfortunately the next person doing a reading decides to have some theatrics on their way up, before they do a reading from the First Letter of Saint John. The rest of the reading was actually appropriate, although there's applause at the end, but the soloist leads into Praise To You Lord Jesus Christ (a Lent hymn), and the Priest does a reading from the Gospel of John and preaches a bit. He brings up the day before was Ash Wednesday and mentions the congregants receiving the ashen cross are told "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return". He does not seem aware that "paying someone dust" is a drag queen insult.
An older Hispanic woman leads the faithful in prayer (largely in Spanish) and visibly gets quite upset. Again, she is dressed appropriately and knows how to behave in a Catholic church.
However at the end she does make it political (to the consternation of the Priest). You can't preach against Catholic doctrine in a Catholic church.
The Priest has at this point caved and allows some people up to lead reflections into Cecilia's life. This is very clearly something he's been
told he's going to have to do.
The first man is the bereaved partner, fighting back tears and he gives a genuinely moving eulogy, although he suggests "where were you when Cecilia died" will be this generations "where were you when JFK died". He does also start addressing the Priest and explaining Cecilia was really an angel, but besides the fact this simply isn't done during a Requiem Mass (which the Priest has now abandoned) I can't really fault him for it. From the sounds of it Cecilia did do a lot of work in supporting a lot of vulnerable people.
Unfortunately the tone is instantly lowered with something that feels practically Pagan and has no place in a Catholic Church. There's also (not in this clip) a direct comparison between the dead person and Jesus himself, and mention of Cecilia breakdancing (she does sound like a hoot, tbf).
Again with the call and response and hooting. I'm sure this ceremony brought a certain amount of closure to a lot of people, it just isn't in the slightest appropriate for a Catholic Church.
The next speaker talks in Spanish but has a translator. This devolves into:
This whore, this great whore, Saint Cecilia, Mother Of All Whores.
This is blasphemy and sacrilegious. This is the bit that would be by far the most offensive to Catholics - it's not just people who don't know how to act in a Church and treating it as a fancy events space where they can do what they want, it's people deliberately profaning the House of God.
Much like the band on the Titanic unclear on what to do, the soloist valiantly makes an effort to get things back on track with a beautiful rendition of Ave Maria. If you're not aware, this is the Hail Mary set to music (the Hail Mary one of the most important prayers in Catholicism; devout Catholics recite it three times a day and it's also said on every small bead of the Rosary, so a devout Catholic praying may end up saying it like 50 times).
Unfortunately there's a disturbance in the congregation and someone comes out acting like a crazy person, which allegedly was "dancing". Supposedly this was accompanied with them saying "Ave Cecilia" which is wildly blasphemous. You can also hear the Priest's mic where he's insisting he's just going to do the Our Father, the Final Commendation and wrap the whole thing up.
The Priest hurriedly administers the rite of Last Commendation (flicking the Holy Water) as the Church continues chanting "Cecilia". He's clearly very out of sorts and his mic picks up some more.
