Annual Red Mass celebration highlights duty, religious liberty
Bishop Michael Olson prepares to process into the cathedral prior to the Red Mass for elected officials and legal professionals on Sept. 26, 2024 at St. Patrick Cathedral. (NTC/Juan Guajardo)
FORT WORTH — An important reminder of the role faith and ethical responsibility should play in one’s professional and personal lives is how several attorneys and judges characterized the Diocese of Fort Worth's Sept. 26 Red Mass, a Mass celebrated at St. Patrick Cathedral followed by a reception at the Fort Worth Club.
The diocese, along with the St. Thomas More Society Fort Worth, sponsors the annual event geared toward area Catholics of the legal community.
A Church tradition since the 13th century, the Red Mass officially opened the term of the court in many European countries. The broad purpose of the Mass is to invoke God's blessing upon lawyers, judges, and public servants.
During his homily, Bishop Michael Olson spoke of current political and cultural winds.
“The extreme partisanship afflicting our political life today is a type of tribalism not informed by rational debate for progress toward a peaceful society,” Bishop Olson said. “But instead an ideology fueled by narratives of mutual contempt between extreme partisans.”
Bishop Olson referenced the ultimate aims of law and justice.
“A good society is one where the law of love and goodness is praised, observed, and reliably enforced,” Bishop Olson said. “A bad society is one where the law of love and goodness is mocked, flouted, and selectively imposed dishonestly with bias and self-interest.”
Absent the rule of law, tyranny, chaos, and violence result, Bishop Olson said, adding that the law of God, the expression of His wisdom, is “alone our peace.”
Lawyers and judges, Bishop Olson concluded, must battle injustice with a courage to “effect change through the rule of law impartially legislated and fairly enforced.”
Saint John Paul II National Shrine Executive Director Anthony Picarello Jr. served as keynote speaker at the reception. A University of Virginia School of Law graduate, Picarello previously served as general counsel for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Picarello trekked the journey of religious freedom jurisprudence through the lens of Supreme Court cases addressing the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, religious anti-discrimination cases, and claims of substantial burdens upon religious groups. Conflicting court rulings and setbacks through the decades aside, substantial positive progress has evolved in all three areas, Picarello concluded, but additional steps need be taken and vigilance maintained. Picarello cited cases involving education, discrimination, same-sex marriage, contraceptive and other health-related mandates, and more.
Picarello applauded a 2003 Supreme Court decision upholding a Cleveland school voucher program on the grounds that it represented true private and individual choice by parents.
“This principle bears deep resonance in the work of Saint John Paul II on religious freedom, and indeed throughout his teaching and Catholic social teaching more broadly,” Picarello said.
It's important too, Picarello told attendees, to take time to “dwell over the true, the good, and the beautiful” but also to exercise their Catholic faith through helping others, be it through volunteering, spreading the Gospel, or other measures.
This year marked 325th District Court Associate Judge Kristina Denapolis' second Red Mass and second year as a judge.
“It is a good reminder, I think, of our role both as Catholics and as members of the legal community,” Denapolis said. “A reminder that we need to remember and think of those things higher and worth striving for in our daily activities and professional lives.”
Homero Perez, a student at Texas A&M University School of Law, agreed.
“There's an intertwine between the ethical concerns of the legal profession and those of our faith,” Perez said. “So the Red Mass and the St. Thomas More Society events we've had at our school help stress the ethical duties I'll face as a lawyer but remind me that it's important to implement my faith to ensure I retain and follow a certain moral compass as a Catholic throughout my life and career.”