BOSTON (LifeSiteNews) — The Archdiocese of Boston called for “intense prayer” and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in response to an event to be hosted this weekend in Boston by the Satanic Temple.
The event, titled SatanCon, will be held Friday-Sunday, April 28-30, at the Boston Marriott Copley Place. Organizers are boasting that the event, which has reportedly sold out, will be “the largest satanic gathering in history.”
Bishop Mark O’Connell, vicar general for the Archdiocese of Boston, addressed the matter in an email sent to parishes on April 3, stating Cardinal Seán O’Malley’s position was that the Catholic response to SatanCon should be “focused on prayer,” and that the faithful would have to strike a “balance” “between countering its intended evil effects and drawing attention to it and making it more prominent.”
In order to avoid making the event more prominent, the archdiocese is discouraging any protests, arguing this “will only fuel the hate of those who support it and feed the media with images.” Instead, O’Connell asked for churches, shrines, and monasteries of the archdiocese to increase and intensify their prayers this weekend. “Rather than protesting in person, we hope to storm the heavens with prayer,” he stated.
Archdiocesan spokesman Terrence Donilon said the archdiocese has drawn up a list of places that will host public adoration as part of the plan to counter the event with prayer. “We are finalizing a list of places throughout our whole archdiocese where we will gather in adoration and prayer. All of our shrines have agreed to be a part of this, and most of our monasteries,” he said, adding:
Our men and women religious will be invited to more intense prayer during that weekend. In addition, many of our parishes will be opening up during the three days … for adoration and Masses with this intention.
The archdiocese is encouraging parishes to recite publicly the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, and several parishes have already announced prayers of reparation for SatanCon.
The theme of the event is “Hexennacht (Witches’ Night) in Boston,” with other scheduled presentations titled “Hellbillies: Visible Satanism in Rural America,” “Deconstructing Your Religious Upbringing,” “Sins of the Flesh: Satanism and Self-Pleasure,” “Reclaiming the Trans Body: A/theistic Strategies for Self-Determination and Empowerment” and “Re-imagining Lilith as an Archetype for Reproductive Justice.”
Although on its website the Satanic Temple claims members do not believe in the supernatural, neither God nor Satan, nor view Satan as a symbol of evil, but rather as “a symbol of the eternal rebel,” it nonetheless also claims legal religious status as a church, advocates for abortion as a religious ritual, and has sued Texas and Indiana over their abortion restrictions on the grounds of religious liberty.
In February, the Satanic Temple proposed a telehealth abortion mill in New Mexico named for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s mother. The “clinic” would offer free prescriptions for abortion pills for girls and women ages 17 and older and offer abortions up to the 11th week of pregnancy. The group says that it would ship the pills via mail to those who wish to perform its “religious abortion ritual.”
READ: Satanists plan to open New Mexico abortuary named after Justice Alito’s mother
In 2014, the Satanic Temple held a “black mass” at Harvard University, a ritual that involves the desecration of a consecrated Eucharistic Host, in an act of blasphemy against Jesus Christ and the Catholic Mass. In 2019, the Satanic Temple of Houston hosted another black mass, after which the group affirmed the desecration of a consecrated sacred Host in hateful and blasphemous words on Twitter.
The Catholics and their fat mama Mary did not stop our Black Mass. The consecrated host was defiled, destroyed, and swept into the trash where it belongs. Thank you Brash brewing company for hosting this wonderful event! Public Unbaptism early 2020 y’all! #HAILSATAN
— The Satanic Temple – Houston (@HoustonTST) November 24, 2019
Catholic News Agency reported that in response to an inquiry, “the Satanic Temple said it is not planning to hold a black mass during the conference next week, nor does it have possession of a eucharistic Host,” even though the weekend’s agenda includes a so-called “Sober Mass” on Sunday, April 30.
In recent months, the Satanic Temple has backed after-school “Satan Clubs” to lure young people into the practices of Satanism. The clubs have drawn the ire of outraged parents, with a Virginia school board hearing testimony from the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) Student Action project. Jonathan Marin, a member of TFP warning against the evil of Satanism, stated to the school board,
This particular Satanic group is known for immoral practices like desecrating graves, promoting unnatural vice, claiming abortion is a religious ‘ritual,’ and attacking the true Catholic Mass with sacrilegious black masses.
The Satanic Temple has also sponsored LGBT “pride” events and erected statues on public property, among other attention-generating antics in support of various left-wing agenda items.
The Archdiocese of Boston’s list of places for prayer and Eucharistic Adoration can be found here. LifeSiteNews has reached out to the archdiocese for comment and will update its report should it receive a response.
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