The Swiss Catholic chaplaincy organising a drag show this week has told the Catholic Herald that the show is the “kickoff” of the drag show format as further events are already planned, while rejecting the idea it is establishing a “series” of drag shows.
As reported earlier this week by the Catholic Herald, a Catholic chaplaincy in the Diocese of St. Gallen is hosting a drag show on September 18, designed to “combine the art form of drag with social, spiritual, and cultural issues.” It will feature two male drag performers and an interview with the men conducted by an employee of the diocese as part of the “deep drag” format, which joins drag with conversation.
According to Ann-Katrin Gässlein – the pastoral caregiver for culture and education in the city’s chaplaincy – St. Gallen’s Bishop Beat Grögli “has been informed about the event in the spirit of transparent communication, which we value and practice in the Diocese of St. Gallen.” She did not confirm if the event had received the bishop’s direct approval.
Responding to a series of questions posed by the Herald, Gässlein confirmed that the event had been planned over “several months”. Future such events are also very much on the cards, although Gässlein was vague about the precise schedule.
Friday’s event is “deliberately conceived as the kickoff for the ‘Deep Drag’ format,” Gässlein stated, noting that “further events are in principle conceivable or planned.” As to what that future looks like, she could not confirm: “Whether and in what form they actually take place will also depend on the experience gained from this first evening. It is explicitly not about establishing a series of ‘shows.’”
She further commented that “the art form of drag serves as a medium and a catalyst for conversation, not as a matter of faith.” The Church, she added, must engage with “artistic forms of expression that raise questions, challenge conventions, and open up new perspectives.”
In its original report, the Catholic Herald noted that audience members are encouraged to donate to an organisation called “HAVEN99” which supports and promotes transgender lifestyles for young adults by offering accommodation in “a supportive queer shared apartment” if they “feel uncomfortable or unsafe in their private lives”. By virtue of its professed mission, HAVEN99 thus operates in contradiction with the Catholic Church’s teaching on sexuality and human identity.
The pro-transgender operations of the organisation do not appear to present a concern to the diocese or the Catholic chaplaincy, by virtue of its support of the organisation in its own promotional material for the performance.
Asked about the aim of the drag show, Gäsllein stated that “there was an explicit desire to combine the art form of drag with existential, religious, and spiritual questions.” These questions pertained to identity and the meaning of life, such as “Who am I? What gives my life meaning?”
The show has been given the theme of “memory and hope”, with Gäsllein commenting that these – along with the idea of “transformation” – are both deeply centred in Christianity while also being themes to which “people outside traditional church settings can also relate.”
The drag show is “an attempt to use art to bring people into contact with questions that religion and the Christian faith have been posing for centuries,” she stated.
Recent years have seen increasing numbers of drag shows held in Catholic venues, or organised by Catholic groups. Despite often vocal protest from Catholics concerned about the shows, organisers have defended the events as harmless and educational.
In 2013, the Vatican’s Congregation for Education condemned a planned drag show being hosted by the University of San Diego. The Congregation rejected a canonical appeal to ban the show, filed by two laymen, stating that the two men did not have the correct status for such an appeal.
Nevertheless, the Congregation noted that “given the gravity of the case, and in light of the spectacle that has unfolded and the scandal it has caused, this Dicastery intends to take administrative action with the ecclesiastical authorities in San Diego.”
Such opposition from the Vatican appears to have diminished in recent years, as drag shows have proliferated in Catholic centres and the Vatican’s own World Children’s Day featured a drag performance for children attending the event.
Michael Haynes is an English journalist in the Holy See Press Corps. He serves as Vatican Correspondent for the Catholic Herald, while readers can follow him at Per Mariam and on X @MLJHaynes.
