Prayers against a Black Mass

As you may have heard, some nitwits have scheduled use of a public venue in Oklahoma City for the purpose of a Satanic Black Mass.  It is unclear if they have a consecrated Host.

This is, I think, mostly a sophomoric stunt.  It is, nevertheless, a horrible blasphemy.

The Bishop of Tulsa, His Excellency Most Rev. Edward Slattery, has issued a letter to people in his diocese.  HERE

A letter from Bishop Slattery

Countering with Prayer the proposed Black Mass in Oklahoma City

My Dear People:

As has been widely reported, a Satanic Black Mass has been scheduled for September 21 in Oklahoma City’s Civic Center. As a part of Satanic worship, a Black Mass attempts to invert the action and meaning of the Eucharist in order to mock Christ’s sacrifice and worship Satan through an orgiastic ritual of pain and perversion. It blasphemes everything which we hold as sacred and redemptive; and the spiritual dangers it poses ought not be dismissed. Since the Civic Center has not responded positively to the pleas of the Archbishop of Oklahoma City not to host this event in a tax-payer supported public venue, I am asking the faithful Catholics in the Diocese of Tulsa to fight this blasphemy through prayer and fasting:

  1. Please keep the nine days prior to the Feast of the Assumption as an extraordinary period of prayer and penance. I am asking every Catholic to abstain from all meat and meat products from August 6 through the 14th. I am also asking that you consecrate your hunger with a daily recitation of a decade of the rosary and the familiar Prayer to Saint Michael. Printed copies of these prayers are available in the bulletin and at the entrances of the church. Be strong and encourage your friends to also be strong.
  1. On Assumption Day, August 15th, we will ask Our Lady on her Feast, to intercede for us and protect us. On that day I in the Cathedral, and every priest in his own parish, will pray a special prayer written by Pope Leo XIII for the defense of the Church against the attack of the Enemy and his apostate angels.
  1. Should these prayers and this period of fasting not effect the cancellation of this event, then I will ask every priest in the Diocese to conduct a Eucharistic Holy Hour on September 21 at the same time (7:00 p.m.) as this profanity is being celebrated in Oklahoma City. Wherever possible, I ask that Eucharistic Processions – especially outdoor processions – be arranged as part of these holy hours. Let us give a public witness to our faith in the Eucharist which is being so profoundly mocked and ridiculed by this event.

From the snares of the devil, deliver us, O Lord!

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Rev. Edward J. Slattery
Bishop of Tulsa

To download and/or print this letter and the bulletin announcement in PDF format, click HERE.

To download and/or print the letter to the priests from Bishop Slattery which includes both the Novena prayers  and the “Leonine Prayers” from the 1962 Rite of Exorcism, click HERE.

I invite all bishops and priests who read this blog, in solidarity with the Bishop of Tulsa and Archbishop of Oklahoma, to pray for the conversion of these deluded souls and for the overturning of this scheduled event.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Our Catholic Identity and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

20 Comments

  1. mfm123 says:

    My prayers are with the diocese of OKC

  2. One of those TNCs says:

    Fr. John Lankeit of Sts. Simon & Jude Cathedral in Phoenix (Bp. Olmsted’s diocese) offered a Holy Hour on July 25th, for this intention. It was wonderful, powerful, and very well attended; and all who came were asked to sign their names to a letter of encouragement and solidarity to the ABp of Oklahoma City. Though not members of the Cathedral parish, we were notified because Fr. Lankeit sent emails to surrounding parishes to come and pray.

    St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle…!

  3. msc says:

    If some idiots want to play at being Satanists and try to offend us, I’m inclined to think that such a strong public response will only encourage them. Imagine the kick they will get out of the possibility that by holding a “Black Mass” (I put it in scare quotation marks because I presume there is no canonical version of such things and that most of these would-be Satanists pretty well make things up as they go along–that’s what Beardsley and LaVey and such did) they can force a whole bunch of believing Catholics into prolong pennance. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t pray, I’m just questioning the wisdom of such a strong public reaction. If someone insults my faith publicly, as often happens these days, I ignore them and turn the other cheek. Ignoring hurts more than engaging.

  4. Mike says:

    May God richly bless Bishop Slattery and all who are unafraid to proclaim our Faith’s most precious and most saving truth.

    May all our nation’s dioceses, parishes, and families see fit to join the Diocese of Tulsa in public affirmations of respect and reparation toward the Blessed Sacrament.

    @msc: The Black Mass is not tiddlywinks. I cannot but imagine that Satan is very pleased about indifference toward the sacrileges that are planned for Oklahoma City.

  5. JKnott says:

    @msc:
    This is far more serious that being personally offended. Bishop Slattery is telling his flock that the Black Mass is a serious offensive to God and the Most Holy Eucharist.
    I love his letter. He is not just calling for a canned prayer to be absentmindedly rattled off after a Mass. He is calling all Catholics in his diocese to prolonged and serious prayer and penance out of true love for God and the Eucharist. He is drawing on the patrimony of the Church and the way in which Catholics used to call down much grace and mercy from the Lord.
    I was recently listening to a talk on the many times in history that God and Our Lady’s intervention stopped great evils. Just two were in the Philippines and of course at Lepanto. There are many more.
    This wonderful Bishop is such a holy and prayerful Prince of the Church. Even if God permits the sacrilege to take place, the bishops and others will all spend an hour united in prayers of reparation to God.
    He WILL answer. How the enemy will hate to see the humble devotion and who knows, maybe even the conversion of the perpetrators. This is what the world needs to see more of and not just “ignore”.
    I, for one, intend to join in.

  6. rcg says:

    @msc: because even playing at this stuff is toxic. I can intellectually understand religious tolerance for all sorts of nutty religions but not for one admittedly dedicated to evil. Even I f one assumes that there is no God one cannot also deny good acts that are done on purpose by people who worship and act on the good things they believe He directed. So if one also denied the existence of Satan one can expect bad things to be done on his behalf even if you do not think he exists. Foolish opens the door for evil.

  7. Joseph-Mary says:

    God bless this holy bishop doing what holy bishops have done in the past because ultimately our battle is not against flesh and blood…

  8. KevinSymonds says:

    I wonder if Bishop Slattery will use the original May 18, 1890 version of the “Exorcismus” prayer?

  9. Pingback: Satanic Black Mass | Fr Stephen Smuts

  10. matt_morrow says:

    As the 21st is normally the feast of Saint Matthew, I will be praying for the intercession of my patron to end this event.

  11. Oh man, 21 September is my birthday. This is sickening.

  12. Ivan says:

    I will pray as well.

  13. Suz. from Oklah. says:

    Oklahoma City’s Archbishop Coakley has also come out in condemnation of this blasphemy, but not as strongly as Tulsa’s Bishop Slattery. I used to work at the Civic Center right after college as the Box Office Manager for the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra back in the late 80’s and I am disheartened that the Civic Center would sink so low as to allow this. Their reasoning is that disallowing it would cause lawsuits. There is also a plan by some of these satanists to put a statue of satan at the state capitol because there is a granite structure of the 10 commandments standing–something about equality of free speech. Oklahoma is a protestant state, but it is very conservative–most people say that if the statue is erected, it will be gone in a day (meaning they will destroy it), but they don’t say much about the black mass–because they don’t understand what it means–they don’t much understand Catholicism and most think we are satanists or “the whore of babylon.” It’s a battle.

  14. RomeontheRange says:

    Hey Oklahoma,
    How about a good ol’ fashion’ riot or two? It seems to work for other folks.
    Just saying…

  15. Pingback: Reparation for planned Oklahoma Black Mass sought by Tulsa ordinary | dclatinmass

  16. americangirl says:

    From now until then PLEASE, PLEASE attend Eucharistic Adoration and do it as often as possible in reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Together in solidarity let us pray for an end to this blasphemous act. There is power in our prayer and we must never forget what prayer can achieve.

  17. Jerry says:

    Bishop Slattery has asked those who are able to both abstain from meat and fast for the nine days of the novena. I know that prior to the post-Vatican II changes, when fasting and partial abstinence was required throughout Lent, that these penitential requirements did not apply on Sundays; some non-authoritative sources on the Internet state that fasting on Sundays was (is?) prohibited.

    Does anyone know:

    (a) Whether such a prohibition, if it ever existed, is still in effect?

    (b) Were (are) other penitential practices also prohibited on Sundays?

    (c) Would the Bishop’s request issued in the manner it was constitute a de facto dispensation? Or would he have to explicitly declare that those fasting as part of the novena are exempted from (citation)?

    Thanks.

  18. bookworm says:

    According to a posting on another blog (Public Catholic, by Rebecca Hamilton, an Oklahoma resident and former state representative) this is NOT the first time a “Black Mass” has been held at this venue. It was done last year but no one — zero people — showed up to attend. So why all the outrage now? Did the Bishop also call for reparation measures last year and they just weren’t publicized outside his diocese?

  19. Jerry says:

    Bookworm — I live in Tulsa and your post is the first I have heard of a Black Mass in OKC last year. I can’t say whether the bishop knew about it and didn’t respond or if it was kept VERY quiet by the organizers.

  20. bookworm says:

    Here’s the post I was referring to:

    http://www.patheos.com/blogs/publiccatholic/2014/08/archbishop-coakley-calls-for-prayer-procession-and-benediction-to-black-mass/

    The second paragraph states: “Self-identified satanists have held a black mass in the Oklahoma City Civic Center for the past several years in a row. Last year, no one — zero — turned out for their little show. Hopefully, Okies will continue with this no-response this year.”

Comments are closed.