Forces of light and darkness converged Friday on the Kansas Capitol in Topeka, where the anti-Christian hate group Satanic Grotto planned to hold a “Black Mass” ceremony.

With Shawnee County sheriff’s deputies and members of the Knights of Columbus reportedly posted outside, nearby Catholic churches were packed full of the faithful, engaged in Eucharistic Adoration and prayer for the conversion of the satanists, who detailed in advance their intention to dedicate the statehouse to the devil, destroy Bibles, break crucifixes, denounce Christ, and perform “rites to the black mass.”

The steps on the south side of the state Capitol were also crowded by opponents of the diabolic, who prayed the rosary under an American flag and amid Jerusalem Cross flags with a bagpiper occasionally blasting tunes to popular hymns.

As promised, lead satanist and founder of the Satanic Grotto Michael Stewart flouted Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s directive to keep outside the state Capitol, where he was permitted to engage in provocative displays of anti-Catholic bigotry that were pre-emptively condemned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City and most state legislators, with the exception of 15 Democrats.

The satanist entered the statehouse, turned violent while dedicating the building to the devil, and was confronted by the only authority he recognizes, video showed.

Footage taken inside on the first floor of the rotunda shows a young onlooker interrupting Stewart’s unsanctioned satanic ritual, allegedly grabbing the satanist’s mock communion wafer.

Stewart, whose satanic code states that “only might is right and violence is the ultimate source of all authority,” appears in the video to viciously attack the individual who interrupted him, throwing at least two punches before law enforcement could tackle him to the ground.

‘Approach this situation with all confidence in God’s ultimate victory over Satan.’

Video published by KCTV-TV shows police handcuffing the apparently violent satanist, then marching him out of the state Capitol while Stewart repeatedly yelled, “Hail Satan” and “I dedicate this building to Satan.”

Blaze News reached out to Kansas Capitol Police but was not immediately provided with details regarding Stewart’s arrest and possible charges.

Around the time of Stewart’s arrest, CatholicVote — which ran an ad campaign imploring Gov. Kelly to prevent the satanists from conducting their “Black Mass” and invited Christians to protest — reiterated, “OUR GOD WILL NOT BE MOCKED.”

Unlike the satanists, Christian protesters appear to have been entirely peaceful, possibly heeding Archbishop Joseph Naumann’s recommendation to “approach this situation with all confidence in God’s ultimate victory over Satan, sin, and death.”

‘We want to see these guys come to the Lord.’

Some of the peaceful Christians who gathered in Topeka to protest the planned satanic ritual came from across and even outside Kansas.

Kent Van Amburg, a Catholic from St. Andrew the Apostle Catholic Church in Gladstone, Missouri, told KSNT-TV, “We came here just for this because we feel it’s important for us to stand up and show that God is real, Jesus is alive, the powers of evil need to be protested against, and we’re here just to glorify God.”

“We want to see these guys come to the Lord,” Kelly Lohrke, a pastor at the Cure Church from Kansas City, told the Topeka Capital-Journal. “It’s freedom of religion; everybody can be here. But we also have a right to pray.”

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