PRIEST AXED OVER VIDEO IN CHURCH – MAKES HEARTFELT PLEA FOR FORGIVENESS

Catholic priest axed over raunchy video in church – Post heartfelt video asking for forgiveness

A Catholic priest has been disciplined after he allowed pop star Sabrina Carpenter to film a raunchy music video inside a 160-year-old church in New York City.

Monsignor Jamie J. Gigantiello has been a priest for nearly three decades but was sacked from his administrative duties and role as Vicar of Development this month. It came after the former Disney star released the video for her new single Feather which was filmed in the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Brooklyn.

In the video, which debuted on Halloween, Sabrina is seen killing off her exes before she pulls up to the church in a pink hearse for their ‘funerals’. She then puts on a leggy display in a puffy black mini dress, black stiletto heels and matching black veil.

The 24-year-old’s underwear was on show as she pranced around the church’s altar, knelt before it and then writhed around several pastel-coloured coffins, including one inscribed with the words “RIP B***h”. Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan was left furious over the provocative video, which has been viewed more than 12 million times, as he said he was “appalled” and claimed the parish hadn’t followed diocesan policy.

Rev. Gigantiello, who has been a pastor at the church for seven years, asked for forgiveness as he issued a grovelling apology to his parishioners. “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 in a statement posted to his Facebook.

The pastor said the parish had been approached in September by a locally-based film crew searching for what he was told was a “production featuring Sabrina Carpenter”. Rev. Gigantiello revealed he agreed to the filming to “strengthen the bonds between the young creative artists who make up a large part of this community and the parish” and revealed the film crew paid $5,000 to use the holy space.

The priest said he carried out a “general search” on the artist but didn’t find anything “questionable” and claimed he and the parish staff were “not aware that anything provocative was occurring in the church”. He said they also didn’t know fake coffins and other funeral items would be placed in the church and that most of the video was supposed to be filmed outside.

CATHOLIC PRIEST AXED OVER RAUNCHY VIDEO IN CHURCH – POST HEARTFELT VIDEO ASKING FOR FORGIVENESSRev Gigantiello reassured his flock that a “lapse in his judgement” would not happen again and claimed the Blessed Sacrament had been removed from the church that day. But Bishop Brennan announced the church has now been re-blessed in a Mass of Repatriation, which saw Holy Water thrown over the altar to make it holy again.