By Pat Healy

     Faith has created something blasphemous. This according to over 100 demonstrators who gathered across the street from the Somerville Theater in Davis Square Saturday to protest the play "Jesus Has Two Mommies" by locally based playwright Faith Soloway.

     Soloway, who plays herself in the production, said she understands how the title could spark some criticism, but insists that it is not a blasphemous play.

     "This is not really about Jesus or the Virgin Mary as much as it is about my own struggle," she said, "but there’s a title called ‘Jesus Has Two Mommies’ and for some people that will not do."

     Robert Ritchie, secretary for the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property and director of America Needs Fatima, the two groups responsible for organizing the protest, said he came from Pennsylvania to hold a prayer vigil in honor of the Virgin Mary, "in reparation for the production that is going on across the street."

Ritchie said he had not seen the play himself, and refused to.

     "As Catholics we know that you’re never allowed to put yourself in an explicitly immoral situation," he said.

     "It’s offensive to Our Lady," he continued, "Our Lady is the symbol of purity and Jesus didn’t have two mommies."

     Demonstrators recited prayers, carried enormous banners and held out pamphlets with the Virgin Mary’s image that stated "Defend your Mother…Say NO! to a blasphemous nativity scene!"

     Richard Allen, a Woburn resident and member of the Knights of Columbus, said he didn’t need to see the play to know that he disagreed with it.

     "I’m here today to protest the fact that they’re stating that a person who I hold as holy and important was gay," he said.

     Ian Brownell, producer of "Jesus Has Two Mommies," said the play does not state that the Virgin Mary was gay, it is simply given a twist so the main character, Soloway can better understand the traditional story.

     In the play Soloway is about to marry her pregnant lover, but is worried about bringing a child into a world where there is so much hate. God and the angel Gay-briel show her another couple who brought up a child in a world full of hate, and showed how much that child changed the world with love. That couple, according to the play, was Mary and Josephine, and their child was Jesus.

     Brownell said he does not object to everything about the protesters.

"It’s a trade-off because they practically do our publicity," he said. "We have a very small grassroots mailing list and not that many people know about us, so the more of a big stink they make about us, the more people that go to our Web site and buy our CDs and our videos."

     Some people did strongly object to the protesters, however, including Project 10 East, a non-profit organization to help start gay-straight alliances. Representatives from the group, along with OutSomerville, and other free speech advocates, lined up across the street from the protesters with signs stating, "Stop the hate" and "Unity" written in the colors of the rainbow.

     A man with a rubber mask of the devil and the emblem "this machine annoys fascists" written on his bullhorn also showed up to protest the protesters.

     "Satan loves me, this I know, because those people across the street tell me so," he sang, taunting at an amplified volume.

     Ashlee Reed, director of Project 10 East, said she thought the group had a right to protest, she just wished it was more of an informed protest.

     "This production is about love and tolerance and it’s against any forms of hate and the fact that [the protesters] are here is showing us that they have a lot of hate," she said, nodding across the street. "Hate is not what this production is about. It’s about love and laughter and how it can get you through times of crisis."

     Brownell said not all Catholics are against the play. He said he has received letters of support from many.

     "I have yet to get a letter from a religious person that has seen the show that’s negative," he said. "Most of the negative letters are from people who haven’t seen the show and aren’t sure what’s going on, who think we’re trying to make fun of Jesus or that we’re trying to rewrite the story of the Bible. As if this little show that happens twice in Somerville could rewrite 2000 years of religion."

     Soloway, when asked what she would say to the protesters to help them understand her work, was bleak.

     "I honestly believe there is nothing I could say," she said.