UPDATED: Lakeville Church's Altar Desecrated in Saturday Incident

Members of Lakeville's congregation were shocked during Saturday's 5 p.m. mass when a man walked to the front of the church during the service's first reading and desecrated the altar by pouring "fluids" on it.

Steven Richard Fay, 34, who was arrested by Lakeville Police after the incident, is still in Dakota County Jail in lieu of $40,000 bail. He's been charged with felony damage to property by the Dakota County Attorney's Office and could later face gross misdemeanor charges of assaulting a peace officer and interfering with a religious observance.

The Rev. Tom Wilson, All Saints’ pastor, said he was in the congregation observing the Mass when “a man in his mid-thirties” got up and approached the altar.” Wilson said the disruption happened quickly.

According to the criminal complaint, Fay approached the alter, turned to the parishioners in attendance, and then opened a jar and poured what is believed to be urine atop the altar and Book of Gospels.

“When he got close (to the altar) you could tell something wasn’t right,” Wilson said. “There were a couple of off-duty police officers in attendance and they were able to subdue the man very quickly.”

As Fay tried to leave, he was stopped in the main aisle of the church by an off-duty police officer from South Dakota who was in attendance, according to the complaint. As the man tried to stop Fay from leaving, Fay began throwing punches at the officer and yelling "I hate Christians."

Fay was ultimately subdued by the off-duty officer and other parishioners until police arrived.

“People were jarred and probably a bit frightened,” Wilson said. “But they were also calm and there was a prayerful presence at the same time.”

There were approximately 700-900 people in attendance for the Saturday evening service, Wilson said, adding that Lakeville police were quick to respond and took Fay into custody within about three minutes after the altercation.

Wilson also said the act disrupted the service for about 10 minutes while the fluids were cleaned up and new linens were put in place.

“We prayed for the man,” Wilson said, “and the Mass continued after that.”

Fay has previously fought three cases of mental illness civil commitment in Dakota County, according to court records. The cases happened between 1999 and 2008.

A bishop in St. Paul was contacted regarding the desecration and instructed Wilson that the altar would need to be re-consecrated. That procedure is normally reserved for bishops, but the task was delegated to be done locally and Wilson performed the procedure early Sunday morning before the scheduled masses.

“We’re a large enough community here where we’re going to have people with medical conditions in attendance,” Wilson said. “We have had other medical incidents that we’ve had to respond to, but we’ve never had anything like this.”

Fay's next court appearance is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on May 9.