CV NEWS FEED // Kansas Catholics and a Catholic national organization are fighting to stop a satanic “black mass” scheduled for March 28 at the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka.
The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP) is leading the initiative to protest the sacrilege. It started a nationwide petition drive and has coordinated a public “rally of reparation” outside the Capitol, where Catholics can pray and offer atonement at the same time as the so-called “black mass.”
The satanic ritual is scheduled by The Satanic Grotto. According to a Facebook post announcing the event, satanists will “dedicate the grounds and our legislature to the glory of Satan.”
“We will be performing rites to the Black Mass and indulging in sacrilegious blaspheme [sic]. God will fall, and Kansas will be embraced by the black flame of Lucifer. Hail Satan,” the satanists added in the statement.
The petition drive started by TFP urges Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly to stop the ”’black mass,” emphasizing that it “offends 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide, 426,000 Catholics in Kansas, and countless more God-loving Americans.” As of the publication of this article, the petition had over 22,000 signatures.
“Sacrilege is simply NOT free speech,” the petition reads.
Chuck Weber, executive director for the Kansas Catholic Conference, told CatholicVote that Kansas’ bishops are aware of the “black mass” and that “spiritual and legal responses are being explored.”
Weber said that if the event is truly happening, it is an “explicit demonstration of anti-Catholic bigotry” that would be “an insult to not only Catholics, but all people of good will.”
According to TFP, the Kansas State Capitol events coordinator confirmed the “black mass” via phone and said that it will occur on the first floor, under the building’s rotunda.
Weber added, “The Catholic Bishops of Kansas ask that first and foremost, we pray for the conversion of those taking part in this event, as well as each person’s own conversion of heart during this sacred Season of Lent.”
A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, referred CatholicVote to Weber’s statement.
John Horvat, American TFP vice president and a Kansas native, stated in a news release that he is “appalled that the State Capitol Building is being used to host such a heinous blasphemy.”
“This is not just an offense against God but an attack on the very moral fabric of our state and nation,” he added. “I urge all God-fearing Americans to take a stand — join us in peaceful protest, sign the petition, and offer prayers of reparation. Now is the time to defend our faith and reject this public affront to God.”
According to TFP, protests against public satanic activity are historically successful. TFP Student Action and other organizations were responsible for a petition campaign that canceled a “black mass” at Harvard University in 2014, and a three day-long reparation rally stopped a satanic conference from returning to Boston in 2024 after it convened in 2023.