Harvard's Satanic Black Mass Stirs Controversy

Dressed in black and hoods, a group of Harvard students joined members of a New York group called the satanic temple to hold a "black mass" at a Chinese restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, last Monday.

A statue designed for display on the Oklahoma state capitol grounds by the Satanic Temple.

The event which was originally scheduled to be sponsored by a Harvard University student organisation and held on campus was relocated at the last minute to the nearby Hong Kong Restaurant and Lounge after the campus group called the Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club, pulled its support.

Harvard did not prohibit the event, allowing it as an expression of student free-speech rights.

According to report, about 50 people, mostly dressed in black and some wearing face makeup, were present for the ceremony.

The ceremony began with a narration on the history underlying satanism and the black mass ritual.

Four individuals in hoods, one man in a white suit, a cape and a horned mask as well as a woman revealed to be wearing only lingerie were said to be active in the proceedings

Although, a consecrated host, believed by Catholics to be the body of Christ, was not used in the ritual.

It has been said that members of the Satanic Temple don't really worship Satan so much as they embrace atheism and point to Satan as a literary symbol of their humanist views.

Catholic groups have been criticising the ceremony, however, and urging Harvard to prevent it from taking place on campus.

"For the good of the Catholic faithful and all people, the Church provides clear teaching concerning Satanic worship.

"This activity separates people from God and the human community, it is contrary to charity and goodness, and it places participants dangerously close to destructive works of evil," the Archdiocese of Boston said in a statement.

Source: BBC News