Metro Voice News Celebrating Faith, Family & Community
Catholic bishops in Kansas are mobilizing against a controversial satanic black mass planned for the state capitol, announcing both spiritual and legal responses to the scheduled March event.
The bishops said last week that they are “aware of a sacrilegious event scheduled to take place later this month inside the state capitol,” adding that spiritual and legal responses are being explored to counter the planned event, according to Catholic News Agency.
“If true, this explicit demonstration of anti-Catholic bigotry will be an insult to not only Catholics but all people of goodwill,” they said in a statement. “The Catholic bishops of Kansas ask that, first and foremost, we pray for the conversion of those taking part in this event, as well as each person’s own conversion of heart during this sacred season of Lent. The Kansas Catholic Conference will continue to update the faithful as the situation unfolds.”
The Satanic Grotto, the group purportedly organizing the March 28 black mass, said the event is intended to “dedicate the grounds and our legislature to the glory of Satan.” The group will be “performing rites” and “indulging in sacrilegious blasphemy.” KCTV5 reports that the announcement has sparked widespread concern among religious communities.
UPDATE: Other local and national religious groups have joined in the protest against this event. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has denounced the planned event but said that she’s still obligated to protect freedom of expression, “regardless of how offensive or distasteful” the content is. However, she said that the black mass will be moved outside to the west side of the Kansas Statehouse. Christian groups are planning a counter-protest and rally on the south side grounds at 10:15 a.m.
In response, the group posted on their Facebook event page on Wednesday afternoon: “The Satanic Grotto lead by its President Michael Stewart will enter the state capitol building and perform our ritual on March 28. You will have to have us arrested to stop us from practicing our free speech and religious rights.”
The Kansas House has since passed a resolution condemning the black mass.
Stewart has now posted a video of a horrific sacrilege in which he urinated on a Bible, crucifix, Communion host, and candle with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Stewart posted the footage to Reddit with the caption, “We were going to go easy on you … Now you get the horns.”
The Satanic Grotto has engaged in anti-Catholic political protests in the past, including recently at the Kansas March for Life. A traditionalist Catholic group called the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property has launched a petition asking Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly to shut down the event.
Last October, Catholics in Atlanta were outraged and called to prayer when a black mass event was announced by the Satanic Temple, a provocative Salem, Mass.-based political organization that denies belief in the supernatural and is known for protesting religious symbolism in public spaces. After legal action by the Atlanta archdiocese, the Satanic Temple admitted it did not have a consecrated host and did not intend to use one in its “mass.”
Catholic Virginian notes that in 2014, a planned black mass at Harvard University sparked considerable outcry from Catholics, as did another one later that year in Oklahoma City. The latter led to a successful lawsuit from the Oklahoma City Archdiocese against an occult group that claimed to have obtained a consecrated host, leading to the host’s return.
–Alan Goforth |Metro Voice
