Bill Donohue comments on a “Black Mass” performance at the Oklahoma City Civic Center that is scheduled for September 21:
On the website of the “Black Mass” it says, “The consecrated host is corrupted by sexual fluids then it becomes the sacrifice of the mass. The blasphemy remains intact along with corruption of the Catholic Mass.” It is scheduled to be performed by Adam Daniels, a registered sex offender.
Oklahoma City had better think twice about this. The Civic Center is funded by the taxpayers, many of whom are Catholic, and they are not obliged to pay for attacks on their religion. Moreover, there are strictures that must be respected. To be specific, performances at the Civic Center are not permitted if they violate “community standards,” including works that are “illegal, indecent, obscene, immoral or in any manner publicly offensive.” One does not have to be Catholic to know that if Catholics believe that a consecrated Host is considered sacrosanct, then public displays of desecration meet the criteria as outlined.
Oklahoma City is setting itself up for a lawsuit. In 1984, in Lynch v. Donnelly, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger explicitly said that the Constitution “affirmatively mandates accommodation, not merely tolerance, of all religions, and forbids hostility toward any.” (My italics.) If a “Black Mass,” whose sole purpose is to show hostility toward Catholicism, does not meet Burger’s dictum, then it has no meaning.
Contact Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett: mayor@okc.gov
