(CNSNews.com) – Catholic Archbishop Paul
Coakley, head of the archdiocese of Oklahoma City, condemned a scheduled Black
Mass by a satanic group, for which tickets are being sold at the Oklahoma City
Civic Center, as “sacrilegious,” a “blasphemous mockery of the Mass.”
The archbishop also called upon community leaders
and board members of the Oklahoma City Civic Center to “remedy this situation,”
stressing that he hoped they did not want to “enable or encourage such a
flagrantly inflammatory event.”
The Black Mass of Oklahoma, being offered by the group Dakhma of
Angra Mainyu, is scheduled to take place in the Civic
Center Music Hall on Sept. 21 at 7PM. Tickets are $15.00.
In the description for the event, the ticket office
says, “The Black Mass has been a feared ritual, and now it’s being brought into
the light! This will not only be enlightening but educational as well. This
Black Mass will be conducted for the public to attend with certain adaptations
to allow for a legal celebration.”
On the eventful
ticket website, it describes the event as follows, “A Religious Black
Mass will be conducted as a public event to help educate the public about
Religious Satanism. The ritual has been toned down to meet the laws of Oklahoma
and the rules of the government building. Enjoy the delights of the Devil.”
“For more than 1 billion Catholics worldwide and
more than 200,000 Catholics in Oklahoma, the Mass is the most sacred of
religious rituals,” Archbishop
Coakley said in in a July 1 statement condemning the Black Mass.
“It
is the center of Catholic worship and celebrates Jesus Christ’s redemption of
the world by his death and resurrection. In particular, the Eucharist – which
we believe to be the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ – is the
source and summit of our faith.”
“That’s why
we’re astonished and grieved that the Civic Center would promote as
entertainment and sell tickets for an event that is very transparently a
blasphemous mockery of the Mass,” he said.
“The ‘Black Mass’ that is scheduled
for the Civic Center in September is a satanic inversion and distortion of the
most sacred beliefs not only of Catholics, but of all Christians.”
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