This week at mass father mentioned a letter sent by Bishop McMannus of the Worcester Diocese that echoes the letter from Bishop Mark speaking for Cardinal O’Malley of Boston suggesting that the faithful avoid going to Boston to pray in front of the location of the Satan convention but rather go to various shrines and churches to pray all this week.
I tend to agree, given what we see of today’s media we know which side they are serving here so why help the enemy out by playing into their hands.
One of the ironies here is that given the messages going out to all catholic churches in the state the Satan Con (like the black mass they were going to hold at Harvard years ago) is likely going to generate a whole lot more prayer, visits to shrines and devotions than normal over the next ten days. All of this is likely to be very good for souls.
As ever God takes lemons and makes lemonade
Concerning the Cardinal’s and the Bishops request to stay away from Satancon there is one exception I would make if I was Cardinal O’Malley in Boston. I would assign a priest to be in viewing distance of the hotel for all three days with instructions to be available for confession for anyone who attends this event who has a change of heart.
After all that’s the primary goal of all the prayers that will be going on and given the volume of prayer I would think that said priest might find himself busier than expected.
One other admonition that the Cardinal and the Bishop have made is that churches and shrines take extra security to protect the blessed sacrament and make sure that over the next ten days they make sure that people who receive the Eucharist at mass actually consume it as it is the practice of Satanists to attempt to get a consecrated host to defile it.
You might remember from Elizabeth Scalia’s excellent reporting at the time that this was a bid deal during the Black Mass business at Harvard.
It’s also one of the ironies that while most of our protestant brothers do not acknowledge the Eucharist as the body of Christ Satanists know what it is which is why make such an effort to obtain consecrated hosts rather than just buying the unconsecrated ones available at catholic supply stores.
After all there is a reason why they hold a black mass and not a black tent revival or a black meeting or go after protestant bread of remembrance and why they’ll desecrate a Bible but you never hear about them going after a koran..
It’s been suggested that the vast majority of those who are attending don’t actually believe in Satan and are just doing it for a lark. Given how it is sold out I’m not sure I agree but I must confess that what I would really like to see is somebody before the convention spread blessed and/or exorcised salt around the hotel or at least its entrance and then have a webcam film the people going in during the convention.
The ones who don’t react are either guests or people doing it for a lark. The ones who react, they’re the real thing.
But either way if I owned that Hotel I’d ask the archdiocese to have someone come in to bless the building and do what’s called a minor exorcism on the place once this convention is done, because frankly after hosting this thing there is no amount of money that could talk me into going in that place until that’s been done.
Finally I’m rather curious about how the various Protestant, Jewish and or Muslim congregations in the area are reacting to this event. Are they ignoring it? Opposing it? Being proactive about it? Praying about it like we Catholics. Are they even mentioning it to their congregations? I mentioned it to one Pentecostal friend and he had not even heard of it and was completely shocked that it was taking place.
And is TFP planning anything. They were VERY proactive during the Harvard business. Will they turn up in defiance of the Cardinal’s request or join in the prayers?
It’s going to be an interesting ten days.
