(Picture credit M Jospeh Willette)
The University of Nebraska Ph.D. recipient behind a now-infamous “drag Mass” project proclaiming a celebration of “the queer body as a holy body” and “carnal pleasure as a consecrated sacrament” was briefly on the payroll of a Nebraska Presbyterian college last school year as an adjunct instructor, The College Fix reported.
College Fix reported on Oct. 5 that Hastings College had hired “M. Joseph Willette to teach composition lessons during the last school year. However, a school official said he is not currently employed there this year.”
A screen capture provided by College Fix showed that a profile page where the adjunct instructor of music composition introduced himself to students as “a composer and educator whose work unabashedly centers queer spaces, culture, and community.”
“Delicate timbres, rich sonorities, and driving club beats capture the intimacies, ecstasies, and tribulations of the human experience, and Joey (they/them) explores these themes in their eclectic catalogue,” added the profile.
Willette’s “Mass of Perpetual Indulgence,” performed in April 2025 at a Methodist church auditorium in Lincoln, sparked a firestorm of controversy at the time from Catholics, including Diocese of Lincoln Bishop James Conley.
According to Willette’s dissertation, accessible online here, his Mass is scored for “chamber orchestra, electronics, soprano solo, and drag performer” and “was written to bridge the gap between queerness and spirituality, to sanctify queer people and celebrate queer lives and communities.”
Willette has described his work as an “appropriation of the traditional Mass [that] blurs the lines between the sacred and the profane.”
“This work features original text by librettist Caroliena Cabada that responds to the narrative of the Mass Ordinary from a distinctly queer perspective. Ultimately, this work celebrates the queer body as a holy body, queer community as a sacred communion, and carnal pleasure as a consecrated sacrament,” notes Willette’s introduction to the score in the dissertation document available online.
The outcry over the drag mass subsequently prompted a formal apology from the University of Nebraska, along with the creation of a presidential commission to recommend steps moving forward to mitigate against religiously offensive projects.
The Plains Sentinel has previously reported on the uneven progress of that presidential commission’s workings.
Hastings College, which is historically affiliated with the socially progressive mainline Presbyterian Church (USA) denomination, “did not respond to questions regarding whether the search committee evaluated the public controversy surrounding the ‘Mass of Perpetual Indulgence’ during the hiring process, or how the institution balances artistic expression with sacred religious beliefs held by its own community members,” reported the College Fix.
Officials from Hastings College likewise did not return a request for comment from The Plains Sentinel.
Reached by email, a communications official with the Diocese of Lincoln declined to comment on Willette’s recent employment with Hastings College.
On his personal website, Willette describes himself as “a composer and educator currently residing in the bustling city of Lincoln, Nebraska whose work unabashedly centers queer spaces, culture, and community,” and includes a contact form for getting in touch about lesson scheduling, score commissions, and “press inquiries.”
The Plains Sentinel reached out to Willette via that contact form as well as via an email listed on his Facebook page, but did not receive a response.
— Ken Shepherd is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel. He is a former editor at Fox News Digital and the Washington Times.