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Published: October 2, 2007

What will he tell them?

Archbishop George Niederauer to celebrate Mass at San Francisco parish that sponsored drag queen contest and once was home to weekly bingo games by transvestite “nuns”

Archbishop George Niederauer will preside and give the homily at the 10 a.m. Mass at Most Holy Redeemer parish in San Francisco on Sunday, Oct. 7 -- the same day the parish will have a booth at the homosexual Castro Street Fair. The archbishop’s visit comes just a week after the parish held a drag show to benefit AIDS victims, despite requests that the archdiocese cancel the event.

“Twelve famed drag queens. One pageant. BLOOD!” read an advertisement for the “unveiling of the 2008 Desperate Diva calendar,” held Sept. 29 at Most Holy Redeemer. The parish is well known as being “gay-friendly.” In September 2006, the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” the “leading-edge order of queer nuns,” whose official slogan is “go forth and sin some more,” held a bingo fundraiser at the parish’s Ellard Hall. Another bingo fundraiser was scheduled for early November of 2006, but on Oct. 31, the archdiocese canceled the event and the groups’ lease on the hall.

But last week’s parish drag show went on as scheduled, apparently with no intervention by the archdiocese. A California Catholic Daily reader contacted the archdiocese on the day before the event urging that it be canceled, but the archdiocese has made, thus far, no statement about it. A request for information to the archdiocese by California Catholic Daily went unanswered as of press time.

Last October, the parish held a special prayer service for the “gay community,” presided over by Jesuit Fr. Donal Godfrey, who has just published Gays and Grays: The Story of the Gay Community at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Parish. At the service, Godfrey said the parish was the place where the rainbow flag “was first invented… for use at San Francisco’s Gay Pride in 1978.” On Sept. 30, according to the parish bulletin, Fr. Godfrey held a book-signing after the 10 a.m. Mass “to celebrate” the book being published.

The Sept. 23 parish bulletin carried a “Report to the Parish” on its Reconnecting group for those interested in coming back to the Church. According to the report, Reconnecting includes talks “about Sex and Sexuality and the doctrine of Primacy of Conscience and how you properly form your own conscience as an adult.” But, says the report, “in order to be a good Catholic, whatever that is, you do not have to Amen everything that Rome says, but it sure does help if you know how to disagree the right way.”

The advertisement for last Saturday’s unveiling of the “Desperate Diva calendar asked participants to “gather in awe” in Most Holy Redeemer’s Ellard Hall, not only “to witness the unveiling” of the calendar, but “to watch Misses January-December duke it out live on stage over who has the most… er… dates? I forget what they win, but it's something.”

The event’s host was to be Heklina of Trannyshack, “and feathers will fly,” says the advertisement. Trannyshack is a nightclub, held on Tuesday nights at San Francisco’s The Stud Bar. Among its “tran” performers are Suppositori Spelling, Syphilis Diller, Peaches Christ, and Heklina.

Proceeds from the sale of the calendar benefit the AIDS Housing Alliance, formed to help AIDS victims obtain housing.

The Castro Street Fair, to be held on the same day as the archbishop’s visit, was first held in 1974, according to thecastro.net, which notes “the event has grown into a tradition as meaningful as the gay pride parade. It’s another excuse for the tribe to come together and celebrate community pride…”

Most Holy Redeemer’s parish bulletin says that, following the reception and coffee hour for the archbishop, parishioners will then attend the Castro Street Fair, where the parish will have a booth and a "Parking Lot Fundraiser by the Young Adult Group."

Most Holy Redeemer parish is also one of the beneficiaries of the proceeds from the fair, along with the homosexual Metropolitan Community Church, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, and others, according to the fair’s web site.

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