(LifeSiteNews) — The leader of the Satanic Grotto group that planned to carry out a “black mass” at the Kansas State Capitol has been arrested after punching a young man who disrupted his ritual.
Video footage of the arrest has been provided to LifeSiteNews and shows the leader of the group, Michael Stewart, being apprehend by law enforcement inside the Kansas Statehouse.
EXCLUSIVE | Leader of Satanic Grotto ARRESTED at Kansas Capitol Building for attempting ‘Black Mass’ pic.twitter.com/VjLQ4pvqMs
— LifeSiteNews (@LifeSite) March 28, 2025
The footage clearly shows a young man trying to grab a piece of paper in Stewart’s hand as he was making his “dedication,” with Stewart responding by punching the man in the face.
According to a local report detailing the lead up to the arrest, members of law enforcement at the Statehouse had “greeted Stewart at the door, telling him he was welcome inside the building, but he could not perform any demonstrations.” Stewart reportedly agreed, but after making his “way to the rotunda” he “held his arms skyward and made a dedication” to the devil.
It was then that a “woman confronted him, saying he was not allowed to do that, while a man approached holding a medallion and praying.”
Members of the Satanic Grotto had said previously that they planned to defy Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s order banning their blasphemous “black mass” from taking place inside the Capitol building.
Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann also repeatedly denounced the profane event. In a recent letter to the faithful, he stated that “the devil has no power over us.”
As LifeSiteNews has reported, to protest the “black mass” and to make reparation to Our Lord, the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property organized and held a Rosary rally outside the Kansas State Capitol Friday morning which saw hundreds of Catholics gather to pray.
While Western governments often permit these public displays of blasphemy, citing freedom of speech or freedom of religion, Pope Pius XI’s 1925 encyclical Quas Primas makes clear that “rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ” because “his kingly dignity demands that the State should take account of the commandments of God and of Christian principles, both in making laws and in administering justice, and also in providing for the young a sound moral education.”