Man Tries To Attack Priest During Sunday Service At National Shrine Of The Little Flower

ROYAL OAK (WWJ) -- The serenity of a morning Catholic service in Royal Oak was interrupted when a man from the congregation charged toward the priest at the beginning of Mass.

"It was a pretty dramatic way to start a Sunday morning," said parishioner Bill Johnson.

He told WWJ's Roberta Jasina the incident happened at the start of a morning service at the National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak.

"A young man sprints at the priest and starts yelling various alarming statements like 'you are the one,' or 'I'm doing this for everyone.' I heard people around me gasp -- people around me don't know if he's armed or what he's going to do," he said.

It didn't take long for people attending the service to react:

"Men sitting at the front of the church went toward the man and wrestled him down to the ground -- about six of them -- pinned him down, and as they were doing this the priest immediately, without hesitation, started praying for the man -- so that was impressive," said Johnson.

He says the man appeared to be putting up a fight and police soon arrived.

The man escaped briefly as he was being taken away by police in handcuffs and kicked over something in the church yelling 'look at this' before being subdued by police.

Royal Oak police took the man away without further incident.

The church is known nationally for the large size of its congregation, and a notorious link to WWII when Rev. Charles Coughlin then vividly supported bigotry against Jews, blacks and minorities with a weekly radio show that reached millions of Depression era listeners.

But this incident appears unrelated to anything from the past.

The man, 30, reportedly yelled "you are the one" at the priest and other phrases but authorities said they have no idea why the man appeared to be angry with the priest.

"He apparently had some sort of mental breakdown," Royal Oak Police Chief Corrigan O'Donohue told the Daily Tribune. "There were concerns he was going to get to the altar before he was stopped."