Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, has filed a motion for the return of the Eucharist a Satanic group claims to have stolen.
Archbishop Naumann on March 14 filed a petition to recover the Eucharist — under state laws governing the return of wrongfully taken or held personal property — in the civil division of the District Court of Leavenworth County, Kansas. The suit states that all sacred Eucharist species are the property of the Catholic Church.
The motion names the defendants as Michael T. Stewart and Travis L. Roberts, along with The Grotto Society (also known as The Satanic Grotto), described in the document as a Kansas not-for-profit corporation.
Stewart and Roberts are the president and vice president of the society, a Satanic organization that plans to conduct a “black mass” on March 28 on the grounds of the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka.
The motion cites posts made earlier this month by Stewart on the social media platform Reddit in which Stewart wrote that his group “already secured a consecrated host” and “wine too” for desecration at the event.
A Facebook event page for the “black mass” stated that the gathering’s intended result was that “God will fall and Kansas will be embraced by the black flame of Lucifer.”
The legal motion states that Stewart confirmed possession “of one or more” consecrated hosts during a March 8 phone call with Gerald “Chuck” Weber Jr., the executive director of the Kansas Catholic Conference. The conference has spearheaded outcry over the “black mass,” calling it an “explicit demonstration of anti-Catholic bigotry” that would be “an insult to not only Catholics but all people of goodwill.”
Archbishop Naumann’s petition to the court states that the Catholic Church “maintains ownership of all Consecrated Hosts and Wine throughout the world” and that “Archbishop Naumann, as the Archbishop of the Archdiocese, is the proper person to seek recovery of such property within the geographic territory of the Archdiocese.”
The petition states that Stewart, Roberts and their group are neither “an ordained priest of the Catholic Church or an extraordinary minister of the Catholic Church,” and do not have any “consent or authorization from Archbishop Naumann or the Roman Catholic Church to possess any Consecrated Host(s) or any amount of Consecrated Wine.”
Archbishop Naumann also noted in his petition, “The value of Consecrated Hosts and Wine is incalculable because their significance and importance cannot be measured monetarily.”
The petition said the immediate restoration of the Eucharist to the archbishop is “directly necessary to secure an important governmental or general public interest” under state law.
“In addition, there is a special need for very prompt action due to the immediate danger that Defendants, consistent with the intent of a ‘Black Mass’ and their statements made to date, will desecrate, conceal, or otherwise damage the property at issue,” the petition said.
The archbishop called on the court to require the return of “any and all Consecrated Hosts and any amount of Consecrated Wine in the possession, custody, or control of Defendants.” If the defendants fail to do so within 24 hours of a court order, the petition asks the local county sheriff to take “immediate possession” of the Eucharistic elements and deliver them to Archbishop Naumann.
The petition asks alternatively for a restraining order by which the defendants “do not conceal, consume, damage, destroy or desecrate” the sacred species in whole or in part, nor remove them from the state of Kansas.
The petition also seeks a hearing, which, according to court records, has been scheduled for March 20.
The Archdiocese of Kansas City has issued a call to prayer, worship and action ahead of the March 28 “black mass,” urging the faithful to also contact Gov. Laura Kelly to ban the event. On March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, Archbishop Naumann plans to reconsecrate the state of Kansas to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
