Oklahoma City’s Roman Catholic archdiocese said on Thursday that its archbishop and a priest performed “prayers of exorcism” to help rid the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall of dangerous spirits after a satanic “black mass” was held there.
The black mass was held Sept. 21 at the venue by a satanist group known as the Dakhma of Angra Mainyu Syndicate despite protests from the archdiocese. Thousands of people demonstrated outside the event.
Aarchdiocese spokeswoman Diane Clay said the ancient exorcism ritual was performed the following day at the public’s request. She said the archdiocese received dozens of emails and calls from people concerned about entering the building or attending events there.
“From the beginning, we have taken seriously the dark and dangerous spirits being invited into our community,” Archbishop Paul Coakley said Thursday in a written statement. “To address those concerns, we visited the venue the next morning to pray prayers of exorcism over the place and to pray the prayers for cleansing.”
About 40 people attended the black mass and satanic exorcism hosted by the Dakhma of Angra Mainyu Syndicate at the civic center. The group’s leader, Adam Daniels, said its purpose was to “expel” the Holy Ghost from a follower.
The archdiocese had sued the group after learning it had a consecrated host, or communion wafer, that it intended to use in the black mass. The archdiocese dropped the case when the group turned over the wafer to a Catholic priest.
The Civic Center is a city-funded facility and cannot discriminate against any group or event, as long as it is not hosting something illegal.
Reporting by Heide Brandes; editing by Mary Wisniewski
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