CLEVELAND, Ohio – An Avon Lake man is accused of threatening to attack some churchgoers after a Mass at St. Raphael Catholic Church was interrupted over Memorial Day weekend, Bay Village police say.
William Ruda, 63, was charged Wednesday with two counts of aggravated menacing, according to Rocky River Municipal Court records. Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer attempted to reach Ruda for comment Thursday.
Ruda attended the 10 a.m. Mass at St. Raphael’s, 525 Dover Center Road, with his wife, son and two grandchildren May 28 when a person interrupted the service to challenge the pastor’s homily. The Rev. Tim Gareau referenced the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence being awarded the Community Hero Award by the Los Angeles Dodgers for service to the LGBTQ community.
Gareau said the church is “under attack,” alluding to the pro-LGBTQ nonprofit in California. Many members of the congregation applauded after the priest’s sermon, but Avery Arden, who is transgender and uses they/them pronouns, approached the altar following the homily and said the priest’s message hurt them.
“Queer and trans people also carry the Holy Spirit, and that was really painful to hear. That was really hurtful,” Arden said.
Arden was escorted out of the church by parishioners and consoled by a married couple who attended St. Raphael’s. That’s when Ruda approached them, according to a police report.
In interviews with police, Arden, the couple and a Bay Village police officer said Ruda threatened to beat them up and shoot them.
Ruda told police he was at Mass for his granddaughter’s First Holy Communion and “could not stomach what he had witnessed” when Arden interrupted. He exited the church, saw Arden and told them to get off the church’s property, which he admitted he did not have the authority to do, police said.
Ruda also told police he could not remember exactly what he had said, but “he may have said if they were in the streets and you came at me that way, I would shoot you,” according to the police report.
Officers were dispatched to the church at 10:46 a.m. for a “possible assault in progress,” Bay Village police told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer last week.
Bay Village Auxiliary Lt. Tim Colburn, who happened to also be at the Mass, said he was shoved by Ruda and heard him yell, “I’ll beat your a--, I’ll blow your f---ing head off, I’ll kill you” before Ruda became calm, the police report said.
At this point, police said Arden had walked away because they were “extremely scared by the entire encounter.”
The Rev. Jim Winings was preparing for a funeral service in his office when he heard a loud argument outside. He witnessed Colburn de-escalate the argument between the couple and Ruda but told police he could not hear anything being said in the argument.
Gareau told police he was unaware of the incident outside until Winings informed him. He also told police he didn’t want anything to happen to Arden except to ask that they not interrupt again.
The last week of school for St. Raphael’s students was canceled because of parent concern for student safety, according to several parishioners.
The Catholic Diocese of Cleveland would not confirm the school’s schedule change.
“We have nothing to add to the statements we’ve made on this matter,” a spokesperson said in an email Monday.
Last week, the diocese said the church does not condone Ruda’s response.
“The act of disrupting the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which is the most sacred part of Catholic life, is a serious matter, and Catholics rightly feel outraged and violated when such a disruption occurs,” the statement said. “In keeping with the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, virtually all present at the Mass responded to the disruption with prayers for the person who interrupted the service and for the Church.”
Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer reached out to the diocese for comment regarding the incident outside Mass.
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