Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Satanists are planning to desecrate the Host at a Black Mass. Let’s stop them

Satan-worshippers are planning to hold a Black Mass in Oklahoma next month. My usual reaction to this news would be: go right ahead. On your own head be it. Those camp Anton LaVey rituals are so 1970s.

But there’s a twist – one that truly deserves the adjective ‘satanic’. The nutjobs organising the ceremony on September 21 have got hold of a consecrated Host. It arrived in the mail, they say, purloined from a Catholic church. So it really will be a traditional Black Mass, described by the Catholic World Report as a ‘ritual centred around the desecration of the Eucharist, which is generally done by stealing a consecrated host and using it in a profane sexual ritual, or defecating and urinating on it’.

In my opinion we could dismiss this as a squalid stunt if the satanists were planning on using the harmless piece of bread that self-described ‘Bishop’ Jonathan Blake actually

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