A satanic leader has been arrested at the Kansas state Capitol after punching a Catholic protester during a heated religious demonstration in the rotunda.
The altercation erupted when the protester attempted to grab a booklet from the satanic leader, who was calling out to Satan during the rally.
The incident, captured on video Friday, capped a tense morning of demonstrations involving about 30 members of the Satanic Grotto and hundreds of counter-protesters, primarily Catholics, who gathered outside the Capitol.
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Satanic leader Michael Stewart had entered the Statehouse despite earlier warnings from Capitol police that any disruptive actions could result in police intervention, The Kansas City Star reported.
Tensions between the groups escalated as Stewart, followed closely by Catholic clergy and lawmakers reciting the Hail Mary, moved through the building.
Stewart punched the Catholic protester, Marcus Jeremiah Jared Schroeder, who was attempting to snatch a booklet from his hands while he called out to Satan.
A prior confrontation outside the Capitol further heightened the contentious atmosphere. Less than an hour before the rotunda altercation, Stewart was tackled by an unidentified man on the Capitol lawn while stomping on a communion wafer.
Stewart was ultimately arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly. He was taken into custody by Capitol police and later released on a $1,000 bond, according to Shawnee County Jail records.
Schroeder, who was also detained following the physical altercation, faced similar charges of disorderly conduct. He has a history of legal trouble, including a prior conviction for calling in a false bomb threat at a 2023 LGBT pride event in Wisconsin, according to the Star.
Friday’s demonstrations were in response to the satanic group’s black mass ritual organized by Stewart and the Satanic Grotto in support of abortion. Members of the Satanic Grotto claimed the purpose of their black mass was to “dedicate the grounds and our legislature to the glory of Satan.”
TFP Student Action, a project of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, had organized the protest against the satanist group in Topeka.
A TFP petition against the black mass had quoted the satanist group as saying: “Join us at the Topeka Capitol building in Kansas as we dedicate the grounds and our legislature to the glory of Satan. We will be performing rites to the Black Mass and indulging in sacrilegious blaspheme [sic]. God will fall and Kansas will be embraced by the black flame of Lucifer.”
Stewart had told the Topeka Capital-Journal that the event was in response to lawmakers who “pander” to religious pro-life groups.
“This is a specific response to our legislatures continuing to pander to groups like the Kansas Catholic Conference and to Kansans for Life, where they keep trying to come back and attack abortion rights, much less other rights,” he was quoted as saying.
Earlier this month, the Kansas House passed a bipartisan resolution denouncing the ritual black mass, describing it as “an explicit act of anti-Catholic bigotry and an affront to all Christians.” Efforts to block the event, including a lawsuit seeking to recover holy items Stewart had purchased online, were unsuccessful.
