A city council meeting in Iowa has become the center of a national controversy after a former council member delivered an invocation honoring Satan, prompting objections from a local Christian pastor and renewed questions about religious expression in government proceedings.
The Oct. 6 meeting of the Ottumwa City Council began with an invocation delivered by Matt Dalbey, a local resident and former council member who belongs to the Iowa chapter of The Satanic Temple.
Rather than offering a traditional prayer asking for divine guidance, Dalbey delivered remarks invoking Lucifer and rejecting religious doctrines.
“Let us stand now, unbowed and unfettered by arcane doctrines born of fearful minds,” Dalbey declared.
He continued by calling those present to “embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat of the Tree of Knowledge,” before concluding with the words, “It is done. Hail Satan.”
According to LifeSiteNews, the invocation immediately drew objections from New Life Center Pastor Rick Bick, who urged city officials to respond to what he regarded as a spiritual offense against the community.
Bick called on the council to “reverse this curse that was put on our city,” insisting that the declaration “Hail Satan” was not welcome.
When instructed to wait until his designated opportunity to speak, the pastor maintained that the matter required an immediate response.
“It needs to be done now,” Bick said. “I appreciate what Ms. (Cara) Galloway is saying, but that was a curse put on the city. Most of you know that, and we need to just stop and reverse it.”
The confrontation highlighted a growing tension between the religious convictions of local residents and government policies designed to accommodate a broad range of beliefs.
According to the Ottumwa Courier, the city adopted an invocation policy on January 20 intended to recognize the religious and philosophical diversity of its residents.
The policy specifically seeks to “acknowledge and express the City Council’s respect for the diversity of both organized and unorganized religious denominations, as well as other faiths, belief systems, or the lack thereof, represented and practiced among the citizens of the City of Ottumwa.”
Under that policy, the city permitted Dalbey to deliver the invocation despite its controversial religious language.
Following the meeting, city officials issued a statement explaining that the council does not necessarily endorse the beliefs expressed by individuals invited to speak.
“We cannot discriminate against a denomination, and everyone that is invited to perform the invocation has followed the correct protocol,” the council stated.
Officials also clarified that they do not review the content of invocations beforehand.
“We are not informed ahead of time what will be said for an invocation nor do we automatically endorse what the speaker is saying,” the statement continued.
The council encouraged residents to review the city’s invocation policy.
Dalbey is reportedly scheduled to deliver another invocation at the council’s November 3 meeting, raising the possibility of further public debate.
The controversy also draws attention to The Satanic Temple, an organization whose use of Satanic imagery differs from traditional religious understandings of devil worship.
According to the organization’s own explanation of its beliefs, The Satanic Temple does not profess belief in a literal Satan, God, or other supernatural beings. Instead, it presents Satan as a symbolic figure representing resistance to arbitrary authority.
The organization has also pursued legal challenges involving abortion restrictions and religious accommodation in public spaces.
As LifeSiteNews reports, The Satanic Temple received recognition from the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt religious organization during President Donald Trump’s first administration, a designation that has strengthened its position in disputes involving religious expression.
For Catholics, however, the distinction between symbolic and literal belief in Satan does not eliminate the spiritual concerns surrounding an invocation that publicly honors the name of the devil.
The Catholic Church teaches that Satan is not merely a literary symbol, but a fallen angel who freely rejected God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that Satan and the other demons were created good by God but became evil through their own choices (CCC 391–395).
Catholic teaching also emphasizes that worship and adoration belong to God alone. The First Commandment calls the faithful to reject idolatry and all forms of religious devotion that place anything above the Creator (CCC 2084–2114).
At the same time, the Church recognizes the importance of religious freedom and the dignity of the human person. The Second Vatican Council’s declaration Dignitatis Humanae teaches that individuals should not be coerced in religious matters, while affirming humanity’s responsibility to seek and embrace religious truth.
These principles present an important distinction for Catholics following the controversy. The legal question of whether a city government must permit a particular invocation is separate from the moral and spiritual question of whether that invocation is worthy of public approval.
The incident in Ottumwa illustrates how debates over religious liberty can become particularly difficult when expressions protected under civic policies directly contradict the deeply held beliefs of other members of the community.
For Catholic Christians, the response to such events remains rooted in fidelity to Christ, prayer, and the conviction that evil does not have the final word.
As the controversy continues, the words of St. Paul offer a reminder of the Christian response to spiritual darkness:
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).
The events in Ottumwa serve as a reminder that religious freedom, public responsibility, and the spiritual convictions of a community can intersect in ways that demand both careful discernment and unwavering faith.
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