michael mack performs at local shrine

prize-winning play
highlights child protection weekend

Cardinal Seán O'Malley has asked all parishes in the Boston Archdiocese to prayerfully and publicly reaffirm on the weekend of Nov. 18-19 their commitment to child safety.

These dates purposefully link to a declaration by the United Nations that Nov. 18 be recognized as the World Day for the Prevention of and Healing from Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse, and Violence.

In that spirit, the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Holliston, Massachusetts, and Xaverian Missionaries USA, is hosting Michael Mack's celebrated solo performance:

Conversations with My Molester:
A Journey of Faith

Michael Mack's boyhood dream of becoming a Catholic priest ended when his pastor first invited him to the rectory. Mack's award-winning drama is his spiritual autobiography, a true story of trespass, grace, and the odyssey of healing that led him away from – and back to – the Roman Catholic Church.

FLYER

ONE SHOW ONLY
Sunday, November 19, 2023
2:30 pm
Our Lady of Fatima Shrine Auditorium
101 Summer Street
Holliston, MA  01746

FREE ADMISSION
donations gratefully accepted

MORE ABOUT THE PLAY

The Xaverian Missionaries are committed to recognizing and ending child abuse in all forms, and to supporting survivors on their journeys of healing.

Mack's play is his own personal testimony to renewal, and to healing as a work both individual and communal.

mack takes the conversation to virginia

In his first live show since the Covid pandemic began, Michael Mack performs Conversations with My Molester: A Journey of Faith on Thursday, April 20th @ 7:00pm at the St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Reston, Virginia.

FLYER

Michael Mack's boyhood dream of becoming a priest ended when his pastor invited him to the rectory. Mack's award-winning drama is his spiritual autobiography, a true story of trespass, grace, and the odyssey of healing that led him away from – and back to – the Roman Catholic Church.

ONE SHOW ONLY
Thursday, April 20th at 7:00pm
St. John Neumann Catholic Community
11900 Lawyers Road, Reston VA 20101

FREE ADMISSION

This Easter season performance reflects Mack's own experience of reconciliation and renewal in returning to the Catholic Church – as well as his "artistic Easter" of returning to live performances after the Covid pandemic. This event also marks a homecoming for Mack, who was raised in nearby suburbs.

michael mack wins
great american fiction contest

The Saturday Evening Post – arguably the nation's oldest magazine (founded 1821 in Ben Franklin's print shop) – has chosen Michael Mack's story "Shush, Shush" from hundreds of other entries as the winner of the 2023 Great American Fiction contest.

This venerable magazine in its long history has published William Faulkner, Zora Neale Hurston, Jack London, Edgar Allen Poe, Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edith Wharton, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Agatha Christie, Ogden Nash, Joyce Carol Oates.... and of course the painter Norman Rockwell.

Michael Mack and his story appear in the Jan / Feb 2023 issue.

two chicago catholic churches
host michael mack performance

HOLY NAME CATHEDRAL
and
OLD ST. MARY'S CHURCH

present Mack's prize-winning
play on healing from clergy abuse

The clergy abuse crisis has been an open wound in the Catholic Church since 2002, with parishioners and clergy struggling to reconcile the beauty and good of their faith with the horrors of abuse.

In a bold statement on the need for greater healing, transparency, and dialogue, the Archdiocese of Chicago and the city's Paulist Fathers are hosting Michael Mack's "powerful" (Washington Post) and "magnificent" (New York Theatre Guide) one-man play on reconciliation...

conversations with my molester:
a  journey of faith

TWO SHOWS ONLY

Saturday, Oct. 26th 2019 at 6:30pm
Holy Name Cathedral
735 N. State St.

Sunday, Oct. 27th 2019 at 3:00pm
Old St. Mary's Church
1500 S. Michigan Ave.
MORE INFORMATION

Post-show audience discussions with Mack and clergy follow both performances.

$10 suggested donation.

background

Mack's boyhood dream of becoming a Catholic priest ended when his pastor first invited him to the rectory.

Conversations with My Molester: A Journey of Faith is Mack's spiritual autobiography, a true story of trespass, grace, and the 40-year odyssey of healing that led him away from – and back to – the Roman Catholic Church.

Mack's multiple prize-winning work has been praised by religious and secular sources alike for its nuanced chronicle of betrayal, grace, and the journey of healing.

This Chicago production is a collaboration of six (6) downtown parishes: Holy Name, Old St. Mary's, Old St. Patrick's, St. James, St. Peter's, and Assumption.

mack performs at ohio state university

Newman Center hosts prize-winning play
on clergy abuse & healing

On March 1st of 2019, the Roman Catholic diocese of Columbus, Ohio released the names of 34 priests credibly accused of sexually abusing minors during its 150 year history.

In response to this, and to the entire clergy abuse crisis, the Paulist Fathers at Ohio State University's Catholic St. Thomas More NEWMAN CENTER hosted Michael Mack's one-man play...

conversations with my molester:
a  journey of faith

ONE SHOW ONLY
Saturday, April 6th 2019 at 7:00pm

FLYER

conversations with my molester:
a journey of faith

Like many Catholic boys in the 1960s, Michael Mack wanted to be a priest. That dream ended at age 11 when his pastor first invited him to the rectory "to help make a costume."

In the decades that followed, Mack wrestled with haunting questions about sexuality and spirituality, and imagined one day meeting his abuser for a conversation. Forty years later he had that chance, and landed on his former pastor's doorstep.

Mack's solo play Conversations with My Molester: A Journey of Faith chronicles the events that took him full-circle away from – and back to – the Roman Catholic Church.

Directed by Daniel Gidron, Mack's lyric monologue premiered at the 10-year anniversary of Boston's clergy sexual abuse crisis.

"conversations" press links

PRESS KIT

PREVIOUS PRESS RELEASE
(for reference only)

THE NEW YORK TIMES Feature, FRONT PAGE of National News section — Jan 14, 2013

WASHINGTON POST Feature, FRONT PAGE of Metro section — May 3, 2014

AMERICA MAGAZINE Feature, the national Catholic review — Sep 17, 2015

NEW YORK THEATRE GUIDE Review — Sep 28, 2015

BOSTON GLOBE Feature — Mar 28, 2012

TIMES SQUARE CHRONICLES Review — Jul 21, 2014

CBS NEWS RADIO (WBZ) Interview on "The Jordan Rich Show" — April 4, 2014

CAMBRIDGE CHRONICLE Feature, FRONT PAGE — Mar 23, 2012

THE PILOT Feature, America's oldest Catholic newspaper — Apr 6, 2012

THE PILOT Interview & commentary, America's oldest Catholic newspaper — March 28, 2014

NPR WGBH feature on "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" — Feb 25, 2013

CAMBRIDGE CHRONICLE Review / Column — Apr 8, 2012

BOSTON HERALD Feature — Jan 11, 2012

NPR Radio Boston Interview — Jan 11, 2012

BOSTON METRO Feature, FRONT PAGE— Jan 4, 2012

artist statement on "conversations"

Crimes against children are profoundly troubling, and justice must be served against those who offend. But is justice fully served if long after the crime – and even the punishment – victims remain damaged? True justice brings relief, not only to victims, but to everyone. As such, it must include a measure of reconciliation. The two are not mutually exclusive.

What is the cost of forgiveness? The play Conversations with My Molester, and the audience conversations that follow the performances, explore the nature of reconciliation – its meaning and its place – in a justice of healing.

"conversations" wins MCC grant

The Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) has awarded Michael Mack an MCC Fellowship in Dramatic Writing for his solo play Conversations with My Molester: A Journey of Faith. Mack is one of only four Massachusetts playwrights to receive the 2013 fellowship – the state's most prestigious and competitive arts award – "for creating work of exceptional quality."

feature in The New York Times
full-page profile headlines national news

Reporter Katharine Seelye from The New York Times flew up from NYC to watch Michael Mack perform Conversations with My Molester: A Journey of Faith at the Catholic Paulist Center of Boston.

Running over 4 weekends, the production was a joint project between Mack and the Paulist community, whose mission is reconciliation and social justice.

The article appeared on the front page of the National news section. NEW YORK TIMES Feature Article

"conversations" at paulist center

Michael Mack presented his autobiographical solo play Conversations with My Molester: A Journey of Faith at Boston's Paulist Center, a Catholic Church community. Press Release Called "spellbinding" by the Cambridge Chronicle, the shows featured a talkback after each performance that included Mack and Fr. Rick Walsh of the Paulist Fathers – an order of Roman Catholic priests – welcoming into a conversation all those impacted by clergy abuse.

notes from the field

some recent events

Charles Wood Theater (Apr 8). Mack performs his work "By Heart" about his mother's recovery from schizophrenia in the ensemble production Come as You Are, an evening of personal testimonies to the reality of recovery, Glens Falls, NY   INFO

Harvard Medical School (May 6). Mack performs his piece "Glass Houses" about the inner life of schizophrenia after winning a commendation from the Hippocrates Initiative for Poetry and Medicine. Selected by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Jorie Graham, Boston, MA

Pine Grove Cemetery (May 20). Honoring the 500+ Westborough State Hospital patients buried in unmarked graves, Mack performs "By Heart" at the groundbreaking for a memorial dedicated to their memory, Westborough, MA   INFO

NAMI National Conference (Jun 29). Mack presents "By Heart" as part of panel discussion Caring for the Spirit – The Role of the Arts, Faith, and Community in Recovery for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Washington, DC   INFO

Complete calendar...