Video surfaced online Tuesday purportedly showing a Maryland Catholic priest named Michael Briese kicking out and then calling the police on a mourning family during a funeral at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church in Charlotte Hall. According to Fox 5 News in Maryland, during the funeral mass for 54-year-old Agnes Hicks, a mourner went to hug the body and knocked over a “golden cup,” or “chalice,” sending pastor Michael Briese into crazy town. Video below shows members of the family arguing with Briese. According to them, he kicked everybody—including Agnes Hicks—out of the church.
“That’s when all hell broke loose. He literally got on the mic and said, ‘there will be no funeral, there will be no mass, no repass, everyone get the hell out of my church,’” Shanice Chisely, the daughter of Agnes Hick recalled. “He disrespected our family, he disrespected my mother. He called my mother ‘a thing.’ He said, ‘get this thing out of my church! Everyone get the hell out of my church!’ It was very sad. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
Briese then called the police who arrived, said the funeral goers had done nothing wrong, and helped escort their procession to a more welcoming church.
The family says that Hicks was baptized at Saint Mary’s and had always wanted her funeral to be there. The Archdiocese of Washington has issued an apology and says they are conducting “an internal investigation” of the events. Considering the Catholic church’s history of investigating wrong-doings by their shepherds, look for pastor Briese at a Catholic church near you.
You can watch the story below the fold.
