Authority, power, and St. Thomas More figure prominently in annual Red Mass
Bishop Michael Olson celebrates the annual Red Mass for attorneys, judges, law students, public officials, and their families on September 25, 2025 at St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Fort Worth. (NTC/Juan Guajardo)
FORT WORTH — Dressed in the red of the Holy Spirit aflame, Bishop Michael Olson celebrated the annual Red Mass at St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Fort Worth on Sept. 25.
For nearly 800 years, the tradition of the Red Mass has drawn judges, lawyers, and public officials seeking the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and strength in the pursuit of justice. This year — the 19th Red Mass in the Diocese of Fort Worth — approximately 200 faithful attended the Mass organized by the St. Thomas More Society Fort Worth.
“It’s my third year going to the Red Mass, and it’s always such a joy,” said Joanne Biju, who is in her final year studying law at Texas A&M University. “It’s scary going to networking events but just knowing that we have faith as a common denominator makes me feel so much ease.”
In his homily, the bishop pulled on the story of the Roman centurion’s compassion for his dying servant, drawing a clear distinction between those who recognize divine authority and use power responsibly and in service to God, and those who, led by indifference and greed, distort their power into a fleeting pursuit of personal glory.
“Rightly understood, power is a tool to be authorized and used accountably and with purpose in accord with an ordinance of reason,” Bishop Olson said, explaining those who surrender to the Lord’s authority do not fall victim to power’s selfish allure.
“The plight of our contemporary world has been forged by centuries of the modern practice of placing authority as subordinate to power, reason as subordinate to will, nature as subordinate to technology, morality as subordinate to politics, and God as subordinate to human autonomy,” the bishop said. “All of this leads to the tyranny of relativism and the usurpation of reason by insatiable appetite, resulting in the nihilism and accompanying violence that afflicts our current political life.”
Only conscience, enlightened by the Holy Spirit through an active sacramental life of prayer, will draw “us into communion with God and with other human beings,” the bishop shared.
For all entrusted with authority, he bid the gathered law officials to “exercise good judgment as illuminated by the Creator for the common good of society, especially mindful of those who are most easily ignored and overlooked.”
Confirmed with conscience
The Red Mass dinner held afterwards at the Fort Worth Club featured keynote speaker Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He thanked Bishop Olson for a “splendid” homily. “You can’t subordinate truth with power, you can’t subordinate authority with power,” he agreed.
The father of five said he’d felt honored to be invited by the St. Thomas More Society Fort Worth for inviting him to speak with them and shared how the English saint had come to his aid during his stressful confirmation process in 2018.
“It is very good to have well connected friends. It is better to have the saints,” Duncan said, adding that St. More’s prayer card sits beside his monitor and a piece of the martyr's Tower of London cell sits in his desk drawer.
“More’s disdain for the world’s power should be how to navigate the tide of nomination politics,” the federal judge quipped. “And he continues to guide me today as a judge.”
During his rigorous confirmation hearings, Duncan faced persistent questioning about whether an attorney who had litigated high-profile religious freedom cases — including the 2014 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby decision, which allowed for-profit businesses to opt out of covering certain contraceptives based on the owners' religious beliefs — could remain impartial in a judicial role that demands neutrality from personal religious convictions.
Duncan pointed to the witness of St. Thomas More, whose integrity and practiced detachment provided him with a model of wisdom in navigating such questions. The saint had been wise in discerning the difference between divine and kingdom law, famously stating he would not arrest “the devil himself until he broke the law,” and would “‘give the devil benefit of law for my own safety’s sake.”
Judges do not presume to apply divine or cosmic law, Duncan clarified — they apply human laws.
“This is a guarantee of religious freedom, not only for judges, but for litigants who are guaranteed an even hand and justice under human laws regardless of the religious convictions of the judge.”
As example, the judge returned to the Hobby Lobby ruling and how it later helped protect the religious freedoms of a Muslim litigant.
“This is the safety More was talking about,” Duncan said. “Justice depending on the impartial application of human laws, regardless of the religious beliefs of the judge or the religious faith.”
Duncan also reflected on St. Thomas More’s care with the precision of his usage and choice of words, which ultimately led to his martyrdom when he refused to compromise his conscience and sanction King Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon.
“We have to know how to use words and when, in prudence, to restrain them,” Duncan reflected. “But we also must know when silence must be broken. Especially today, when words seem to be rapidly losing meaning. The most basic words: freedom, life, person, man, woman.
“If judges do not defend the meaning of words, we will have nothing left of the law and then we will only be ruled by will and by force,” he continued. “We must ask more of the Master of law and reason to help us do this.”
In his conclusion, Duncan shared how he passed a statue of St. Thomas More as he left daily Mass to attend his final confirmation hearing. In that morning’s Gospel (Luke 21:12-19), Jesus urges His disciples to bear testimony before kings and governors for His sake.
The judge concluded by reciting the prayer on the English saint’s statue, which begins, “Pray that, for the glory of God and in the pursuit of His justice, I may be trustworthy with confidences, keen in study, accurate in analysis, correct in conclusion, able in argument, loyal to clients, honest with all, courteous to adversaries, ever attentive to conscience. …”
Faith in law, justice, peace
Founder of the local Red Mass, Robert Gieb said that according to St. Thomas Aquinas, the purpose of law is to lead individuals to virtue and promote the common good.
“What better place for lawyers, judges, and elected officials to be reminded of that than at the Red Mass?” Gieb, who serves as vice president of the local St. Thomas More Society, posited. “Even more so, if law is intended to encourage a peaceful and just social order that leads its citizens to God, what better place for lawyers, judges, and elected officials to be than gathered together in prayer in the Sacred Liturgy in the very presence of the absolute peace and justice of the Holy Trinity?”
For the past three years, Associate Judge Kristina Denapolis of the 325th District has been drawn to the Red Mass by the opportunity to gather with a community of faith committed to both law and justice.
“When you do have faith and a relationship with our Lord, it really tempers any decision I make because I do have a belief system that I operate from, no matter what I do — personal, professional,” she commented.