The bullhorn-powered war of words between satanists and Catholics boiled over into brawling and a handful of arrests Friday during an extraordinary event at the Kansas Capitol that pushed boundaries of free speech and the separation of church and state.

The organizer of a “black mass” that took place outside the Kansas state Capitol on Friday amid heavy Catholic protest was arrested shortly afterward in the Capitol building after punching a protester in the face. 

A video from local news outlet WIBW shows Michael Stewart raising his arms and chanting in the Capitol rotunda, surrounded by a number of protesters urging him to stop. A young man later identified as Marcus Schroeder attempted to snatch what appeared to be papers from Stewart’s outstretched hands. 

A physical altercation inside the Kansas Statehouse Friday ended with Capitol Police arresting Satanic church leader Michael Stewart, capping off a morning of inflammatory religious demonstration. Stewart punched a man, Marcus Jeremiah Jared Schroeder, who repeatedly attempted to rip a booklet out of his hands while he called out to Satan from the Capitol’s first-floor rotunda. Both men were taken into custody and booked into the Shawnee County Jail, records show.

The Vatican’s doctrine office published a letter on Thursday confirming that single mothers can receive Communion after going to confession and urging the need for further “pastoral work” in parts of the world where single mothers might still face harsh judgment. 

In the letter signed on Dec. 13, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández underlined that women who chose life and face difficulties because of this choice should be “encouraged to have access to the healing and consoling power of the sacraments.”

Jesus’ healing presence in the Eucharist can “fill with tenderness” the voids and wounds produced by sin in individual lives and in society, Pope Francis said on Friday.

In a meeting at the Vatican with a pilgrimage group led by the Sister Disciples of Jesus in the Eucharist on Aug. 25, the pope noted that in the eyes of the world, it might appear “absurd” to begin confronting societal problems by prayers on one’s knees of “adoration and reparation,” but that it is always effective.