Black Mass Hysteria

When the Satanic Temple offered to perform a historical re-enactment of a black mass through the Harvard Extension School Cultural Studies Club, no one had any idea what a media circus would ensue. The event was originally intended as a lecture on the history of legends surrounding the black mass followed by a performance. The idea was similar to the 1922 film Haxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages, which informed the audience about early modern beliefs about the devil featuring actors portraying a witch’s Sabbath. But an unusual lecture quickly became national news when Catholic critics decried it as Harvard-sponsored hate speech.

By Monday night when the event was scheduled to occur, it had been denounced by Harvard president Drew Faust, Harvard chaplains, and the Archdiocese of Boston. A petition protesting the event was signed by 60,000 students, faculty, and alumni; an estimated 1500 Catholics protested with a holy hour and a Eucharistic procession down Massachusetts Avenue; and spokesperson Lucien Greaves says he received numerous death threats. In the aftermath, I spoke with Greaves about the intentions behind the black mass and what would have happened had the event been allowed to take place as planned.