A 25-year-old Edmonton man was charged with a ‘hate crime’ after he allegedly disrupted Mass at a church and briefly posted an obscenity-laden video online.

On Dec. 13, three men attended the 11 a.m. Mass registering under false names. Shortly after Communion, the suspect went to the podium just as the pastor, Father George Puramadathil, was clearing the sacred vessels from the altar.

The man’s speech was incoherent at first, but “as this person continued his rant, we began to understand the profanities, the extremely, extremely vulgar language that he was using,” said one mass attendee.

After Fr Puramadathil asked him to leave, the man left the altar “and right there, in front of the first pew, he dropped his pants, exposed himself, front and back, right in front of the family with two babies,” said a member of the parish council.

The suspect also filmed himself. The video was uploaded online and has since been taken down.

At a Mass at the parish Dec. 20, Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith called the incident a criminal act and a sacrilege.

Police report there were 37 hate-related charges laid in Edmonton in 2020.

Nationally, ‘hate crimes’ abated slightly in 2018, with a 13 percent drop in police-reported incidents, according to Statistics Canada. Religion is a significant motivator, with 36 percent of hate crimes directed at religious targets.