Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin on Monday condemned a scheduled performance of a satanic black mass next month in Oklahoma City.
“This ‘Black Mass’ is a disgusting mockery of the Catholic faith, and it should be equally repellent to Catholics and non-Catholics alike,” said Fallin. “It may be protected by the First Amendment, but that doesn’t mean we can’t condemn it in the strongest terms possible for the moral outrage which it is. It is shocking and disgusting that a group of New York City ‘satanists’ would travel all the way to Oklahoma to peddle their filth here. I pray they realize how hurtful their actions are and cancel this event.”
Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City has been working to stop the black mass, initiating an archdiocesan-wide prayer campaign. Support for the campaign has come from neighboring dioceses as well as the Church across the world.
The event is scheduled for Sept. 21 at the Oklahoma City Civic Center. The archbishop said the black mass “is a satanic inversion and distortion of the most sacred beliefs not only of Catholics, but of all Christians.”
Oklahoma City officials have said the Civic Center is a public building and the city must abide by the First Amendment and allow it to be leased to any group that agrees to abide by all laws and city ordinances.
The black mass in Oklahoma City reportedly is being organized by the Satanic Temple of New York City, which last year submitted plans for a public monument of a seated Satan on the state Capitol grounds to counter a monument of the Ten Commandments.
Event organizer Adam Daniels told the Catholic news site Aleteia that a Eucharistic host was “mailed to us by [a] friend. That is all I’m going to say about how it was attained.”
“As far as I know, the host mailed to me is consecrated,” he said.
