Good versus evil.

That’s the phrase more than one person has used to describe the satanic “black mass” planned for the Civic Center Music Hall and the huge outcry from the Christian faith community it has drawn from Oklahoma and around the world.

“Even though our city leaders apparently do not take this threat seriously, I do,” Roman Catholic Archbishop Paul S. Coakley wrote Thursday in his column posted on the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City’s website. “As a Catholic priest and bishop I have witnessed in my ministry the battle between forces of good and evil in both ordinary and extraordinary ways.”

Coakley will host a large prayer gathering at a church nowhere near the Civic Center on Sunday, and another religious group is planning to hold a worship service a few blocks away from the venue but earlier in the day.