Gloom Prophets Haunt Saint Pat’s
By Joseph Modzelewiski, Daily News, New York
September 22, 1969, North America
Hundreds of Sunday churchgoers were mystified by the appearance outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral yesterday morning of 38 youths belonging to a strange religious cult.
Wearing wine-colored burlap robes, the demonstrators appeared to be in a trance as they riveted their blank stares on the façade of the cathedral for more than an hour.
All held long wooden staffs in their right hand and copies of the Old Testament in the left. Wooden yokes hung from their necks and the 28 men had small metal hoops on their left ears. The foreheads of the 10 girls were smudged with charcoal.
Police Are Puzzled
Police arrived at noon, but they also were at a loss to explain the significance of the group.
“They are the Children of “God mourning the death of America,” claimed John Treadwell, spokesman for the oddly costumed youths.
Treadwell said the group was protesting what he called the wickedness of the country and its failure to obey the teachings of the Bible.
Arnie Dietrich, a bearded, self-proclaimed “apostle” of the Children of God, stated that the group has been in existence for a year and, although it has not financial support, travels about the country predicting impending doom.
Since their arrival, he disclosed, the robed youths have performed their silent ritual outside the Waldorf-Astoria, on Times Square and before the United Nations.