The leader of a Satanic group in Kansas will not immediately face charges over a physical altercation in the Kansas State Capitol rotunda in March, which took place following a sacrilegious “black mass” the group attempted to stage on the Capitol grounds amid heavy Catholic protest. 

Michael Stewart, who leads the Leavenworth, Kansas, group the Satanic Grotto, was arrested inside the Capitol in Topeka on March 28 after defying an order from Gov. Laura Kelly that excluded protesters from the rotunda. The group Stewart leads had earlier in the day held a ritual on the grounds — a so-called “black mass” — designed to directly parody, and thus mock and protest, the Catholic Mass. 

Stewart had later entered the Capitol and begun to pronounce Satanic prayers when a counter-protester, Marcus Schroeder, twice attempted to snatch the papers Stewart was reading from. Stewart punched Schroeder twice in the face and was immediately tackled by Capitol security officers. Schroeder, too, was arrested, as were two other members of the Satanist group who tried to resume Stewart’s ritual after he was led away. 

Stewart faced charges of unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct, according to his booking page on the county website. The other Satanic group members faced charges of unlawful assembly, while Schroeder was booked under suspicion of disorderly conduct. 

Shawnee County prosecutors decided last week not to pursue charges against Stewart and two other Satanic Grotto members, though the statute of limitations lasts five years, the Kansas Reflector reported.  

Stewart has described himself as an atheist who does not believe in God or Satan. 

Then-Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, led the Catholic response to the “black mass” while the ritual was taking place, leading a Eucharistic adoration and a Mass with some 400 attendees at Topeka’s Assumption Catholic Church, which is directly opposite the Capitol. A large crowd of several hundred counter-protesters, primarily organized by the Catholic group the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, also gathered on the south side of the Capitol to pray the Rosary and demonstrate in defense of the Catholic faith. 

Satanist groups intending to stage so-called “black masses” have on at least one other occasion boasted of possessing a stolen consecrated Host with an intent to desecrate it. Archbishop Naumann filed a lawsuit on March 14 in Leavenworth County District Court, seeking an order to secure the safe return of any consecrated Hosts in the Satanist group’s possession, and settled the suit when the Satanist leaders testified under oath that they did not possess any. 

The archbishop has since retired at the customary episcopal retirement age of 75; his successor, Archbishop W. Shawn McKnight, was installed as Kansas City’s new archbishop on May 27.

In a statement March 21, the archbishop had urged all Catholics to pray fervently for the conversion of the hearts of the Satanist group members and to take part in the peaceful protest efforts, particularly adoration and the authentic  Mass. 

“If we seize the opportunity to draw closer to Jesus through prayer, then we can make this attempt to mock and blaspheme our Catholic faith into what Satan most fears and despises,” Archbishop Naumann wrote. “Let us pray that the Lord of Life can penetrate and change the hearts of the Satanists of our time with his merciful love.”