On Monday the Governor of Oklahoma issued a public condemnation of the Black Mass scheduled for the Oklahoma City Civic Center late next month.
Republican Mary Fallin said, “This ‘Black Mass’ is a disgusting mockery of the Catholic faith, and it should be equally repellent to Catholics and non-Catholics alike. 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.”
Exactly what goes into a Black Mass is unclear. The intention is to invert the Mass of the Roman Catholic Church, and the ceremony is said to include acts that would be illegal if performed on city property, including urination and sexual acts used to mock the beliefs of the Catholic Church. City police intend to be on hand to make sure no laws are broken.
The Archbishop of the Archdiocese Diocese of Oklahoma City denounced the “mass,” calling it “a satanic inversion and distortion of the most sacred beliefs not only of Catholics, but of all Christians.” Bishop Paul S. Coakley asked city officials to block the event, but the city says the event is protected under the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Archbishop took the unusual step last week of calling on Texas Catholics to come to the aid of the Church in Oklahoma.
It is rumored that the event organizers have stolen a consecrated communion host, which is the central focus of the central event in the Catholic liturgical life. According to Church teaching, a host that has been consecrated by a Priest retains the outward appearance and properties of unleavened bread but in fact turns literally into the body and blood of Jesus Christ.