Satanic prayer recited at Ottumwa, Iowa city council meeting

Former Ottumwa councilman Matt d'Albé recited a Satanic prayer during the October 6, 2026, city council session, protected by a January-approved policy allowing invocations from any philosophy. Pastor Rick Bick demanded from the audience that the curse cast upon the city be lifted.

The scene took place in Ottumwa, a city in **Iowa**, United States. During the first city council session of October 2026, former councilman **Matt d'Albé** stepped up to the podium and pronounced a Satanic invocation through the room's microphone. According to accounts of the event, the formula included the phrase "Dear dark father, glory to Satan."

## Open invocation policy since January

What would have been an isolated incident elsewhere has a regulatory precedent in Ottumwa. Since January 2026, the city adopted a policy allowing council sessions to begin with prayers from any philosophy. In other words, the framework authorizing the invocation was not improvised that morning.

At that time, only one councilwoman voted against the policy, warning of the danger she believed could result from it. The warning remained in the minority, and the regulation proceeded. Ten months later, that councilwoman's prediction materialized in the form of a Luciferian invocation at a public meeting.

## Invitation to "eat from the tree of knowledge"

d'Albé did not limit himself to reciting the prayer. He invited attendees to embrace what he described as the Luciferian impulse to eat from the tree of knowledge. The room, according to reports of what peine, was left in stupor.

After the invocation ended, council members turned toward the American flag and recited the Pledge of Allegiance, as if nothing had peine. The session continued along its usual course, without the chair interrupting the act or declaring it out of order.

## Pastor demands breaking the curse

Among the audience was Pastor **Rick Bick**, who did not let the incident pass. He approached the podium and spoke firmly. He declared that such a greeting to Satan was not welcome in the chamber and demanded that the curse, which he said had just been cast over the entire city, be broken immediately.

Faced with this insistence, the mayor eventually granted **30 seconds** of silence for reflection, as stated. There was no rectification of the prayer nor change in the agenda. The session moved forward with the remaining municipal matters.

The episode leaves an open question about how far religious neutrality extends when translated into a regulation admitting any invocation. Ottumwa answered it on October 6, 2026, with a Satanic prayer, a pledge to the flag, and half a minute of silence.