By Cole Hill (staff@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Jul 19, 2013 05:17 PM EDT

After holding a "Pink Mass" at the Mississippi grave of Catherine Idalette Johnston last weekend, the Satanic Temple claims to have turned the mother of Westboro Baptist Church Founder Fred Phelps Jr. gay in the afterlife.

A New York-based group that "encourage[s] benevolence and empathy among all people," the Temple visited Johnston's tombstone recently to perform the ritual, which it claims turned the spirit of Phelps' mother gay. The Temple's spokesperson Lucian Greaves explained the group's motivation.

"The idea for the Pink Mass ceremony and website came during the aftermath of the tragic Boston Marathon bombings, during which time the WBC were threatening to protest the funerals of the bombing victims," said Greaves in a press release.

"Members of The Satanic Temple were in Boston, waiting for them, but they failed to show. Later, the WBC issued a statement that they had been present 'in spirit'. We decided that a same-sex couple celebrating ceremony at the grave-site of Fred Phelps's mother was an appropriate way to meet the Westboro Baptists, 'in spirit', but this time on our terms."

Greaves reportedly officiated the "Pink Mass" ritual along with two same-sex couples honoring their love above Jonhston's grave. The group says it hopes other same-sex couples will make their own "pilgrimages" to the gravesite and submit their own photos.

The Satanic Temple's provocative ceremony comes after the Westboro Baptist Church recently announced it would picket the funeral of recently deceased "Glee" actor Cory Montieth, who passed away July 13 due to mixed drug toxicity involving heroin and alcohol.

The Westboro Baptist Church is "arguably the most obnoxious and rabid hate group in America," according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Anti-Defamation League is less explicit, but agrees the church is "a small virulently homophobic, anti-Semitic hate group."

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