'Educational' Satanic Black Mass Sells Out

A satanic black mass to be held in Oklahoma later this month - featuring a reverse exorcism - has sold out.

All 88 tickets have been bought for the September 21 ritual to be led by a devil-worshiping group, the Dakhma of Angra Mainyu.

Church leaders have expressed alarm at the gathering, which they say will be a perversion of the Catholic liturgy.

But Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall, which is hosting the event, promised on its website it would be "enlightening but educational".

All attendees must be at least 16 years old.

The ceremony will be held before an altar-like table on which a woman in lingerie will lie, say organisers.

Leaders of the service said they would use obscene language while stamping and spitting on an unconsecrated communion wafer.

The ritual will also feature a satanic exorcism, designed to banish the Holy Spirit from the follower's body.

The organiser, Adam Daniels, who describes himself as high priest of the group, told the Oklahoman newspaper: "The goal for the event is to continue the satanic movement - to keep fighting for our rights for religious freedom."

The organisers had to amend their plans so as to abide by local health and safety laws; they agreed not to use a real communion wafer, to forgo nudity and use vinegar instead of urine.

The local archdiocese sued after the devil worshippers were said to be in possession of a real communion wafer. The wafer was returned by a lawyer for the organisers, according to reports.

Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Jennifer Lindsey-McClintock told ABC News: "Mr Daniels must abide by our local ordinances, our fire codes and all of our state laws. No bloodletting of any kind will be allowed."

But Catholic Archbishop Paul Coakley has said he is dismayed the city would allow a public government building to be used for such an event.

"We're astonished and grieved that the Civic Center would promote as entertainment and sell tickets for an event that is very transparently a blasphemous mockery of the Mass," he said.

The Dakhma of Angra Mainyu are not the only devil-worshippers active in Oklahoma.

A group called the Satanic Temple is applying to erect a statue of the devil at the state capitol building.