By Daniel Payne
CNA Staff, Jun 25, 2025 /
12:24 pm
Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, this week slammed a so-called “drag Mass” performance put on by a University of Nebraska student, calling it an “offensive” display marked by “lies, evil, and ugliness.”
The higher education news website the College Fix first reported on the performance on May 30. The LGBT-centric demonstration was hosted by a local Lutheran church; its creator, music doctoral student Joseph Willette, said the event was meant to “bridge the gap between queerness and spirituality.”
Explicitly describing the performance as an “appropriation of the traditional Mass,” Willette said the display “blurs the lines between the sacred and the profane.” The College Fix said the incident “imitated various parts of the Mass, including the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei.” It reportedly featured a chamber orchestra and singing along with drag performances.
In a June 24 statement, Conley called the event a “blatant public display of faith-based discrimination,” one that led to Willette himself earning a doctorate.
The profane performance “reflects poorly on the University of Nebraska, its faculty, and our community,” Conley said.
“There is no redeeming value in such a display of ignorance,” the prelate wrote. “Such discrimination would not be tolerated if directed at other religions, so why is it tolerated if the target is the Catholic faith?”
“It’s offensive and should be condemned by the university, not applauded or rewarded,” he said. “Education should strive for the true, the good, and the beautiful — not lies, evil, and ugliness.”
The mockery of the Mass generated significant pushback and criticism, including from the Catholic League, which the College Fix reported sent a letter to the University of Nebraska demanding the school “[hold] accountable” the professors who sanctioned the display.
In a video response posted to Instagram, Willette said he felt “no need to defend myself or my work.”
Stating that he would not be “bullied” into “submission,” Willette vowed that he would “continue to make unabashedly queer music.”
Conley, meanwhile, called on the university “to do more than ignore such a vile display of hatred.”
“Have the courage to stand up and declare your institution will not tolerate or reward such inappropriate behavior and take action against the faculty who encouraged it,” he said.
Daniel Payne is a senior editor at Catholic News Agency. He previously worked at the College Fix and Just the News. He lives in Virginia with his family.
