Satanist leader's attempt to hold Black Mass in Kansas Statehouse sparks
chaos and 4 arrests
[March 29, 2025]
By JOHN HANNA
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The leader of a small group of self-described
satanists and three other people were arrested Friday following a
scuffle inside the Kansas Statehouse arising from an effort by the
group's leader to start a Black Mass in the rotunda.
About 30 members of the Kansas City-area Satanic Grotto, led by its
president, Michael Stewart, rallied outside the Statehouse for the
separation of church and state. The group also protested what members
called the state's favoritism toward Christians in allowing events
inside. Gov. Laura Kelly temporarily banned protests inside, just for
Friday, weeks after Stewart's group scheduled its indoor ceremony.
The Satanic Grotto's rally outside drew hundreds of Christian
counterprotesters because of the Grotto's satanic imagery, and its
indoor ceremony included denouncing Jesus Christ, who Christians believe
is the Son of God. About 100 Christians stood against yellow police tape
marking the Satanic Grotto's area. The two groups yelled at each other
while the Christians also sang and called on Grotto members to accept
Jesus. Several hundred more Christians rallied on the other side of the
Grotto's area, but further away.
Kelly issued her order earlier this month after Roman Catholic groups
pushed her to ban any Satanic Grotto event. The state’s Catholic Bishops
called what the group planned “a despicable act of anti-Catholic
bigotry” mocking the Catholic Mass. Both chambers of the Legislature
also approved resolutions condemning it.
“The Bible says Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy, so when we
dedicate a state to Satan, we’re dedicating it to death," said Jeremiah
Hicks, a pastor at the Cure Church in Kansas City, Kansas.
Satanic Grotto members, who number several dozen, said they hold a
variety of beliefs. Some are atheists, some use the group to protest
harm they suffered as church members, and others see Satan as a symbol
of independence.
Amy Dorsey, a friend of Stewart's, said she rallied with the Satanic
Grotto to support free speech rights and religious freedoms guaranteed
by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, in part because Christian
groups are allowed to meet regularly inside the Statehouse for prayer or
worship meetings.
Before his arrest, Stewart said his group scheduled its Black Mass for
Friday because it thought the Kansas Legislature would be in session,
though lawmakers adjourned late Thursday night for their annual spring
break. Stewart said the group might come back next year.
“Maybe un-baptisms, right here in the Capitol,” he said.
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A priest and a group of Kansas legislators and visitors to the
Statehouse pray the Catholic rosary on the ground floor in response
to an attempt by the Satanic Grotto from the Kansas City area to
hold a "Black Mass" inside, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Topeka,
Kansas. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
Video shot by KSNT-TV showed that when Stewart tried to conduct his
group's ceremony in the first-floor rotunda, a young man tried to
snatch Stewart's script from his hands, and Stewart punched him.
Several Kansas Highway Patrol troopers wrestled Stewart to the
ground and handcuffed him. They led him through hallways on the
ground floor below and into a room as he yelled, “Hail, Satan!”
Stewart’s wife, Maenad Bee, told reporters, “He’s only exercising
his First Amendment rights.”
Online records showed that Stewart, 42, was jailed briefly Friday
afternoon on suspicion of disorderly conduct and having an unlawful
assembly, then released on $1,000 bond.
The Kansas Highway Patrol, which provides security at the
Statehouse, said two others who entered the building with Stewart
also were arrested for unlawful assembly, Jocelyn Frazee, 32, and
Sean Anderson, 50. Frazee had no bond set; information for Anderson
was not available online.
Witnesses and friends identified the young man trying to snatch away
the Black Mass script as Marcus Schroeder, who came to
counterprotest with fellow members of a Kansas City-area church.
Online records show Schroeder, 21, was arrested on suspicion of
disorderly conduct, with his bond also set at $1,000.
A friend of Schroeder's, Jonathan Storms, said he was trying to help
a woman who also sought to snatch away Stewart's script and “didn't
throw any punches.”
The woman, Karla Delgado, said she came to the Statehouse with her
three youngest children to deliver a petition protesting the Black
Mass to Kelly's office. Delgado said she approached Stewart because
he was violating the governor's order and Highway Patrol troopers
weren't immediately arresting him. She said in the ensuing
confusion, her 4-year-old daughter was knocked to the ground.
“When we saw that nobody was doing anything — I guess just in the
moment of it — it was like, ‘He’s not supposed to be allowed to do
this,’ so we tried to stop him," she said.
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