The singers, musicians and their families all come from a small Catholic community in the middle of the Everglades. The town of Ave Maria grew out of the vision of Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan for a virtuous Catholic community gathered to advance our faith in response to an increasingly secular world.
Ave Maria is a Catholic university town; families of eight kids and more are the norm. Lemonade stands and golf carts line the streets, not homeless. Think Truman Show, but with priests and nuns. I moved there to recover from cancer and never left.
That’s why when we gathered for dinner after the White House performance at a popular Capitol Hill eatery, the musicians weren’t ready for what we encountered: a legion of four profane, angry and abusively loud protestors had gathered to ruin our dinner.
After 40 years in global politics, I’ve seen it all. But the choir has not. The protestors, sometimes on-the-scene outside Butterworth’s Restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue, were dressed in black and screaming profanities at them through bullhorns a safe distance away.
These were 60 teenagers and younger kids, grandparents and grandbabies. Our parish priest heard the most vile abuse, but restaurant security welcomed us in without incident. Some of the kids were a bit surprised, as were some adults. The noise was deafening, even inside. Sirens and speedmetal music were accompanied by a diminutive singer who couldn’t quite marshall a realistic punk rock scream. They pressed strobe lights against the windows.
It was downright demonic.
Surprisingly, the small town guests were taking it all in with smiles. Father David Vidal told me “We are from a totally different place and our group must see this.” The choir must see that we actually live in a post-Christian world.
It was a surreal scene, as the videos show, but suddenly, the scene changed. Our choir director, the unflappable Mark Haas, stood up and declared over the screeching protest outside: “Salve Regina!” All the singers smiled widely as he raised his hands.
“Hail, Holy Queen" is a renowned hymn and prayer in the Catholic Church, beloved by the worshippers of our town dedicated to Mary. Many of us sing it daily back home honoring Her as Queen of Mercy and Mother of God. The choir’s performances of this traditional hymn at our towering church are always remarkable.
It’s a plea for mercy. At its first familiar Latin phrase, I reflexively rose to my feet and recorded the scene. The protestors outside initially drowned out the beautiful performance inside, but our artists continued.
And then, a minute later, as the choir’s voices rose, the protestors stopped. Suddenly, all we could hear were the plaintive pleas of the hymn, wrapped in chords of sweetness and hope. As the song ended, there was quiet. I dashed outside to catch a strange scene.
The cursing and abusive decibels of amplified ritual screaming had stopped. The protestors were packing up to leave. Butterworth’s security team told me it was unusual for them to depart an hour-plus before their permit ended at 10:00pm. A nearby Washington Police officer was bemused. “When they heard the hymn,” he said, “they kind of freaked out.”
I returned to dinner and a comparatively quiet dining room, many of the singers and their families were thunderstruck and talking. What had we just witnessed? What had these singers just done?
“It’s good versus evil,” one parent told me. His young daughter, a soprano, sat wide-eyed beside him. “Did we just hit the devil with holy water?” she asked.
I think she was right. And two days later, after a half dozen performances at Washington’s most holy sites, and an historic evening at the White House, the singers told me what they will remember most about this trip is the night they “sang away the evil at Butterworth’s.”
After Russiagate, I try to love my enemies. I struggle to even be kind to my accusers. I think all the targets do. Certainly Christians should respond to evil with love, healing, and prayer, not by becoming evil themselves. That night on Pennsylvania Avenue, God's music redeemed the situation and Our Lady may have softened a few hearts, as God's ultimate good always triumphs over temporary evil. So, I must try harder.
A Human Events intern in 1985 and a longtime adviser to President Donald Trump, Michael Caputo served as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the COVID outbreak (2020-2021). Today he lives and works in Ave Maria, Florida and studies theology at Ave Maria University.
