Leader of ‘black mass’ arrested at Kansas Capitol after punching protester

The Kansas Capitol in Topeka. / Credit: Nils Huenerfuerst/Wikipedia| CC BY 4.0

CNA Staff, Mar 28, 2025 / 17:05 pm (CNA).

The organizer of a “black mass” that took place outside the Kansas state Capitol on Friday amid heavy Catholic protest was arrested shortly afterward in the Capitol building after punching a protester in the face. 

A video from local news outlet WIBW shows Michael Stewart raising his arms and chanting in the Capitol rotunda, surrounded by a number of protesters urging him to stop. A young man later identified as Marcus Schroeder attempted to snatch what appeared to be papers from Stewart’s outstretched hands. 

Video and images circulating on social media show Stewart punching Schroeder twice in the face before a half-dozen police officers tackled him and led him away.  

Upon reaching the Capitol building’s doors, law enforcement had greeted Stewart and told him he was welcome to enter but could not hold a demonstration. Gov. Laura Kelly had previously banned all protesters from entering the building. 

Stewart had publicly announced on numerous occasions his intention to defy Kelly’s order and enter the Capitol rotunda, saying in a recent Facebook live video that he intended to enter the building and “read prayers.” 

According to the Kansas Reflector, after the area cleared, two other Satanists tried to pick up where Stewart left off and were taken into custody. 

It’s not yet clear what charges, if any, will be brought against members of the Satanist group. 

During the “mass” on the Capitol steps prior to the altercation inside the building, a protester attempted to throw himself on the unconsecrated “crackers” that Stewart was stomping on as part of the Satanic ritual. Stewart pummelled the man with his fists, and law enforcement took the man away, the Reflector reported.  

Catholic leaders in the state, while deploring the planned sacriligious “black mass” — which is designed to protest and mock the Catholic Mass — had called for peaceful and prayerful resistance. 

At the center of the Catholic reaction, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, led a session of Eucharistic adoration and Mass at a Catholic church directly opposite the Capitol. According to the Reflector, “as many as 400 people” showed up for the Mass at Assumption Church.  

Naumann, who settled a lawsuit earlier this month after the Satanic group testified under oath that it did not steal a consecrated host, had urged the faithful not to “succumb to anger and violence, as that would be cooperating with the devil.”

A large crowd of several hundred counterprotestors, primarily organized by the Catholic group the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, gathered on the south side of the Capitol to pray the rosary and demonstrate in defense of the Catholic faith. 

Meanwhile, “about 20 people” showed up in support of the “black mass,” WIBW reported.