It’s October 9 — the feast day of Saint John Henry Newman. Five Sisters of the Blessed Undoing are performing a High Drag Mass in a gay bar in his honor, following the full structure of the Catholic liturgy, but the sacred texts are Newman’s love letters, Vatican dossiers, and a saint who turned up missing from his grave.
The show is built on a piece of Catholic history most people don’t know: for centuries, the Church performed same-sex union ceremonies at the altar. When Pope Francis signed Fiducia Supplicans in 2023, many called it historic. Mass Drag argues it was a return.
Centuries Documented same-sex union ceremonies in the Catholic Church
Centuries Men tried by Church inquisitions for sodomy, then burned at the stake
James Lopata wrote the book, music, and lyrics. He holds an MTS from Harvard Divinity School, studied playwriting with Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, and spent years as cantor at St. Francis Xavier Church in Manhattan. He has thirty years of Zen practice. This is the show he was always meant to write.
We preach to the choir. Proudly.
You are now part of the choir.
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