BY: ANNA KAMINSKI
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — During moments of near silence among the Catholic archbishop of Kansas City and hundreds of people gathered in prayer inside the Assumption Church in Topeka, chants, shouts and sometimes sirens penetrated the church doors.
While competing religious protests clashed on the Capitol grounds across the street, as many as 400 people convened in the church to participate in prayer, ceremony and a mass that was meant to be an “antidote” to the “unbelieving secular society.”
The services were part of a series of counterefforts planned in response to a “black mass.” The black mass, planned by a nonprofit organization not affiliated with the Satanist Temple, the Satanic Grotto. After the event’s announcement on Facebook in February, outrage ensued.
Leading up to Friday’s satanic protest, Christian counterprotests and Catholic services, the archbishop, Joseph Naumann, sued the grotto’s president, Michael Stewart, who was arrested Friday around 11:30 a.m. after entering the Statehouse. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and legislative leadership tried in advance to limit the protest through modifications to Stewart’s permit to gather and new restrictions on Capitol building rules. A handful of Republican legislators attended the mass.
Naumann gave a sermon condemning the protests that were meant to cause “confusion” and “chaos,” he said. The efforts fostered confrontation and conflict, he said, and were designed to be “provocative.”
“What I do not understand is why we are giving our Capitol as a venue for what truly is hate speech,” he said.
He drew a connection between satanists and atheists after dissecting Stewart’s previous claims of religiosity, calling him a “so-called satanic worshiper but really an atheist.”
“The group — who is really pro-choice, pro-abortion and atheist — present their abortion advocacy as part of their fake religion so that they can claim religious rights are being violated by any efforts to provide protection to the unborn and their mothers,” Naumann said.
The antidote to the religious conflict unfolding in Topeka, Naumann said, was allowing people to see their faith.
“It’s sad, those who are trying to desecrate the Capitol today, desecrate symbols of faith — Bibles and crucifixes. Thank God, we don’t believe they have a consecrated host, but this is a sad state of life for them to be in. We need to pray for them,” he said.
Naumann’s lawsuit, which was dropped soon after it was filed, revolved around false claims that Stewart had obtained a consecrated host.
Inside and outside the church, law enforcement officers stood on watch as throngs of people gathered and moved on the Capitol grounds while those inside the church stayed mostly still.
Natalie Rowe, a 68-year-old lifelong Catholic, said she traveled Friday morning to Topeka from Wichita to be part of a strong showing. Before the mass began, she attended the archbishop’s eucharistic adoration, which involves praying before a consecrated host.
“The universe is very important to me,” she said. “My faith is very important to me.”
Then she crossed the street to join the demonstrations.