Archbishop’s lawsuit vs. Satanists settled after KC man proves he got holy items on Amazon
The lawsuit brought by Kansas City, Kansas, Catholic Archbishop Joseph Naumann against Satanists planning to hold a ritual at the Topeka Statehouse has been dismissed.
Naumann and Satanic Grotto founder Michael Stewart reached an agreement Thursday after the organizer behind next week’s Black Mass event provided testimony and proof that he purchased the communion wafer he plans to use online.
At the event, Satanists plan to mock a Catholic mass on the steps of the Capitol next Friday. In response, a group of Catholics are organizing a counter protest at the same time.
Naumann’s 44-page complaint alleged that the host in question could only have been obtained through illicit means — “theft, fraud, deception, wrongful taking, or other form of misappropriation.”
No money or holy items exchanged hands between the Satanists and the archbishop, according to attorneys who represented Stewart. Leavenworth District Court Judge John J. Bryant wrote that the civil lawsuit had been dismissed without prejudice, meaning the planned ritual could proceed.
Naumann’s appeal to the court asked that the bread and wine in question be seized and handed over to the church. He demanded that Stewart surrender the wafer under the belief that it was consecrated by a Catholic priest, and had therefore been transformed into “the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ” under church doctrine.
Stewart provided The Star a screenshot of a receipt for 300 communion hosts purchased from Amazon.com’s “Americana Warehouse” collection for $11.83 and delivered on March 8.
Court records show Naumann will be responsible for paying the court’s standard $195 civil filing fee. Details of the negotiated settlement were not yet publicly available Friday.
The KCK Archdiocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did attorneys that represented Naumann. Attorneys for Stewart declined to comment.
“This Satanic Grotto leader was put on the stand and admitted under oath that he had lied regarding his possession of a consecrated Eucharist,” said Chuck Weber, executive director of the Kansas Catholic Conference. “And so, as far as that goes, we are reasonably confident that he does not have a consecrated host, which has been our number one concern all along.
“This guy has changed his story so many times that we can’t really keep up with it.”
Weber said Stewart called his cell phone earlier this month saying he “wanted to negotiate a quote, ‘peaceful solution’ to this.”
“I don’t know what that means other than the alternative is not peaceful,” Weber said.
Stewart told The Star Friday that his group is non-violent.
“I know some news people are saying we’re violent going to storm the capital (sic) and I just keep reiterating to everyone we’re non-violent. We are going to be peaceful,” Stewart said in a text message.
The Kansas House passed a bipartisan resolution 101-15 Thursday denouncing the Black Mass, an inversion of the Catholic ritual, as “an explicit act of antiCatholic bigotry and an affront to all Christians.”
The Legislative Coordinating Council, a Republican-controlled group of legislative leaders that includes the House and Senate Democratic leaders, has called on Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, to prevent the Satanic ritual from taking place.
Kelly has characterized demonstrators’ plans as “insulting” but says she must protect their First Amendment right to assembly. Kelly has forbidden the group from holding their ritual in the rotunda as originally planned, banishing them to the Capitol steps.
This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 12:42 PM.
