This is from one of the towns I used to cover as a reporter:
UPPER DARBY — A crying baby sparked a feud between two men at the 4 p.m. Sunday Mass in late October at St. Charles Borromeo Church, Drexel Hill.
“There was a fist fight in the back of the church two weeks ago,” police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said of the Oct. 20 incident. “The defendant surrendered Friday and was arraigned on simple assault charges. Initially it was a he-said, she-said incident (mutual fight) about a comment about keeping a baby quiet in church that ended up in a fight and the two men having to be separated by parishioners. He knocked him out inside the church. Why would you get into a fight over a crying baby?”
Matthew J. Von Siegel, 36, of the 400 block of South Springfield Road, Clifton Heights, was arrested and charged with simple assault and harassment.
According to Chitwood, one of the men commented to a woman to keep her baby quiet. “The other guy didn’t like what was said and challenged the guy to a fight,” Chitwood said. “Neither one had any relation to the baby. The victim went to the back of the church to avoid a problem and the defendant sought him out.”
According to the affidavit, the victim asked Von Siegel “what’s your problem?”
“Von Siegel punched the victim in the face knocking him into the vestibule and to the ground,” Criminal Investigator Edward Silberstein wrote in the document.
If attending church is that unsafe perhaps we should allow everyone entering the sanctuary to be armed? To the teeth. Especially the priest or minister who could immediately meet out some form of corporal punishment against the offenders. And not some sissy retribution like going to confession or giving alms. A good stoning maybe?
Where was the baby chapel?