ATLANTA—In an Oct. 8 memo to clergy, sisters and staff of the archdiocese, Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer, OFM Conv., addressed the sacrilege of an event of the satanic temple of Atlanta to be held Oct. 25. A so-called “black mass” is scheduled by the organizers at a venue on Ponce de Leon Avenue.

The archbishop called upon on all Catholics to counter the attack on the faith through prayers of reparation and penance in his remarks:

“Even though tickets are being sold for this event as if it were merely some sort of dark entertainment, this satanic ritual is a serious sacrilege. It is a blasphemous and obscene inversion of the Catholic Mass. Using a consecrated host they claim they obtained illicitly from a Catholic church and desecrating it in the vilest ways imaginable, the practitioners offer it in sacrifice to Satan.

This terrible sacrilege is a deliberate attack on the Catholic Mass as well as the foundational beliefs of all Christians. It mocks our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we Catholics believe is truly present under the form of bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist when it has been consecrated by a validly ordained priest.

I am calling on all Catholics of the Archdiocese of Atlanta to face this attack to our faith through prayer, penance and prayers of reparation. I am asking that each parish conduct a Eucharistic Holy Hour with Benediction to honor the real presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, ideally on Friday, October 25, at 9 p.m., or between now and October 25 as an act of reparation to this proposed sacrilege.

We commend our efforts to the Lord through the loving intercession of Mary, the Mother of God.”