Dominican Assistance in Black Mass Lawsuit

Fr. Joseph Fox, O.P., a canon lawyer from the Province of St. Joseph, recently assisted Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City in a lawsuit against a satanic group scheduled to hold a black mass on September 22nd. The satanic group had obtained a consecrated host illicitly and was planning on using the host during the ritual. Fr. Fox explained the Church’s “ownership of all consecrated Hosts throughout the world” in a declaration attached to lawsuit, emphasizing the sacredness of the Eucharist to Catholics. Fr. Fox serves as canon lawyer for the Busch & Caspino Law Firm, which represented this case as well and assists a number of dioceses across the country. Thankfully the consecrated host was turned over to Catholic officials in Oklahoma following an initial ruling by the judge assigned to the case. Archbishop Coakley dropped the lawsuit but continues to ask that the Prayer of St. Michael the Archangel be said in the diocese until the feast of Archangels on September 29th and that a Eucharistic Holy Hour be celebrated in each parish before September 21st. Fr. Fox joined the Dominicans in 1965 and was ordained a priest in 1974. He recently joined the faculty at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park where he teaches canon law and serves as Director of Development. Fr. Fox has spent many years serving in Rome as staff official of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts; bureau chief of the personnel office of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See at the Roman Curia; a member of the theology and canon faculties and vice rector for development at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas; and the director of pastoral formation at the Pontifical North American College. He has also served as a canon law consultant to several bishops and archbishops and has taught canon law at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit and the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC.

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Image: Fr. Joseph Fox, O.P. (left)