Oklahoma City’s Catholic archbishop filed a lawsuit against a satanist group Wednesday, alleging it stole a priceless, sacred and revered item from a Catholic church for use in its “black Mass” at the Civic Center Music Hall. 
 
 In his lawsuit filed in Oklahoma County District Court, the Most Rev. Paul S. Coakley asked a district court judge “to halt the desecration” of a stolen Eucharistic host as part the planned black Mass. The Eucharistic Host is considered by Catholics to be the body of Jesus Christ. 
 
 However, the organizer of the satanic black Mass, set for Sept. 21, said he and his group did not steal anything and the lawsuit filed Wednesday is a form of “intimidation” to stop the event from happening. 
 
 “I’m being falsely accused of a crime I never committed,” said Adam Daniels, who is the defendant in the lawsuit, along with the satanic organization Dakhma of Angra Mainyu Syndicate. 
 
 The case has been assigned to Oklahoma County District Court Judge Bryan C. Dixon, who ordered the defendants not to destroy the property at issue until the lawsuit is resolved. No hearing date has been set. 
 
 Group to rent space 
 
 Daniels has said the black Mass involves a sacrifice to the devil, a practice known as inversion of the Christian ritual. Daniels is paying $420 to rent a basement theater in the Civic Center for five hours. 
 
 In a news release, Coakley, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, said a consecrated host was obtained illicitly from a Catholic church “to be desecrated in the vilest ways imaginable” as an offering in sacrifice to Satan at the black Mass. 
 
 Coakley is asking the court to require the Oklahoma County sheriff to obtain the Eucharistic host from the Satanist group and deliver it to him as the local leader of the Catholic Church. The lawsuit states that in order for an unauthorized individual to have a consecrated host, he or she would have had to obtain it through illicit means such as “theft, fraud, wrongful taking or other form of misappropriation, either by Defendants or by someone else.” 
 
 In the lawsuit, Coakley said the consecrated host — typically a small unleavened wafer of bread — is considered sacred by Catholic Christians. It is an integral part of the Eucharist, also called Holy Communion. 
 
 “A host is simply a piece of bread. However, a consecrated host — including the Consecrated Host that is the subject of this action — is a host that has undergone the transubstantiation and is now the body and blood of Jesus Christ,” the lawsuit states. “To Catholics, the consecrated host is the most sacred, respected and revered thing in the world.” 
 
 ‘Miraculous change’ 
 
 Transubstantiation, the Merriam-Webster dictionary says, is the “miraculous change” by which, according to Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox dogma, the Eucharistic elements at their consecration become the body and blood of Christ while keeping only the appearances of bread and wine. A host must be consecrated by an ordained priest. 
 
 Coakley said in his statement: “Catholics believe Jesus Christ is truly present under the form of bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist, and it is the source and summit of our faith.” 

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 FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2011 file photo, Archbishop Paul Coakley , center, is installed as the fourth archbishop of the Oklahoma City Archdiocese in a ceremony at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, in Edmond, Okla. Coakley has sued to try to stop a group of Satanists from staging a "black mass" next month at a civic center, arguing that the group is using a communion wafer stolen from the Catholic Church. 
 
 Bishop Paul Coakley, right, then of Salina, Kansas, prays during the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' annual fall meeting Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010 in Baltimore. 
 
 FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2011 file photo, Archbishop Paul Coakley, center, is installed as the fourth archbishop of the Oklahoma City Archdiocese in a ceremony at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, in Edmond, Okla. Coakley has sued to try to stop a group of Satanists from staging a "black mass" next month at a civic center, arguing that the group is using a communion wafer stolen from the Catholic Church. 
 
 OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A group of Satanists planning to stage a "black Mass" next month at a civic center is using a communion wafer stolen from the Catholic Church, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the archbishop of Oklahoma City. 
 
 Archbishop Paul Coakley said in the lawsuit, which was filed in Oklahoma County District Court, that satanic group Dakhma of Angra Mainyu and leader Adam Daniels unlawfully obtained the consecrated host to be used in the Mass. A consecrated host is a wafer of bread that has been blessed and that Catholics believe is the body of Jesus. 
 
 According to the lawsuit, only ordained Catholic ministers or people approved by their local bishop can handle the consecrated host. 
 
 "Catholics believe Jesus Christ is truly present under the form of bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist and it is the source and summit of our faith," Coakley wrote in a statement. "The local organizers of this satanic inversion intend to use a stolen consecrated Host obtained illicitly from a Catholic church to desecrate it as a sacrifice to Satan." 
 
 When contacted by The Associated Press, Daniels refused to say how he obtained the communion wafer and said he would sue Coakley for defamation. 
 
 The black Mass is scheduled for Sept. 21 at the Oklahoma City Civil Center Music Hall. 
 
 A separate satanic group is trying to build a 7-foot-tall statue of Satan at the Oklahoma state Capitol. The New York-based group Satanic Temple says state legislators opened up the door for the statue after the Legislature authorized a privately funded Ten Commandments monument at the Capitol that was erected in 2012. 
 
 The Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has sued to have the Ten Commandments monument removed. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Kristi Eaton on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KristiEaton
– A Satanist group has stolen a holy wafer from a Catholic church to use in an upcoming "black Mass," or so alleges a lawsuit filed yesterday by the Oklahoma City Catholic archbishop. Paul S. Coakley asked an Oklahoma County district court judge "to halt the desecration" of a stolen "Eucharistic Host," scheduled to be sacrificed on Sept. 21 at the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall, reports the Oklahoman. Adam Daniels, who paid $420 to rent a basement theater in the civic center for five hours, is organizing a tamer version of a traditional black Mass, or the inversion of a Catholic Mass, for Dakhma of Angra Mainyu Syndicate, but it still involves a sacrifice to the devil. "A host is simply a piece of bread," the lawsuit reads. "However, a consecrated host—including the Consecrated Host that is the subject of this action—is a host that has undergone the transubstantiation and is now the body and blood of Jesus Christ. To Catholics, the consecrated host is the most sacred, respected, and revered thing in the world." Daniels, meanwhile, wouldn't tell the AP how he came to possess the wafer, but he says he didn't steal it and he shot back at Coakley, saying he'd sue for defamation. (Earlier this summer, the Vatican formally recognized a group of exorcists.)