A priest kicked a funeral out of a Maryland church and the family says he disrespected the deceased.
Before a funeral for Agnes Hicks could begin at St. Mary Catholic Church in Charlotte Hall last week, WTTG-TV reports a guest knocked over a chalice, damaging it and angering the Rev. Michael Briese.
Hicks' daughter, Shanice Chisely, says Briese ordered everyone out and disrespected her deceased mother, saying "get this thing out of my church.''
Briese apologized in a letter to the editor in The Enterprise, saying anger "was the most inappropriate response.''
Theo Johnson, a cousin of Hicks, who was black, told The Enterprise that Briese, who is white, tried to explain he wasn't racist. Johnson said,
"Nobody said anything about race. We were just saying he was being disrespectful.''