Chicago Students Protest Suppression of Black Mass

The prohibition of "Black Mass," the rite of devil-worship at the University of Chicago has caused the student government to consider a resolution criticizing the University for "unjustified suppression of religious freedom."

Details of an attempt by 20 student devil's advocates to perform the Mass on Halloween came to light last week. The plan was prevented when it leaked out to the director of the house system, who ordered all the students involved to report to their house heads periodically on Halloween night.

"This is not a case of actual suppression," insisted the house system director, but he would not elaborate. The Dean of Students commented. "If we prevented a Black Mass, we were justified in doing it."

A spokesman for the worshippers declared that the administration was "unduly alarmed about the nature of the Mass." Although "the traditional ritual demands the use of stolen host and holy water," the spokesman denied the charge that the group was planning to steal these items from a local church.

He also denied that the students were planning to hold the Mass at midnight in the University chapel, "with someone rising from a coffin in the transept and deflorating a virgin on the altar as the conclusion of the Mass. There is no authority for this in any of the literature on the Mass, and it seems impractible. On the contrary, our ceremony would have been quite conservative and restrained."

"The Black Mass is the Catholic Mass inverted,' 'the spokesman explained. "The Lord's Prayer is recited backwards, inverted black crosses are used, there are blasphemous plays on words a load is baptized, and a goat stands by for atmosphere."

Usually the witchmaster who presides over the ceremony is a woman and the altar boys are homosexuals but these details would not have been included, the spokesman assured.

The Black Mass originated in the Middle Ages as a reaction against church power. The spokesman said that it is still being performed in Brittany, Wales, and parts of Hungary and Russia.