Here’s Why People Are About to Pray for the Supreme Court

[rug]

Washington's annual Red Mass ceremony has been held since 1953

Lily Rothman
5:00 PM ET

Washington D.C.’s Catholics will have a chance on Sunday to pray for the U.S. Supreme Court, at the annual “Red Mass” service that marks the beginning of the court’s term. This year’s will be the 63rd such service at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, but the tradition of praying for lawyers is much older.

The first such ceremonies were held hundreds of years ago, and attended by royal judges in Italy, France and England, as explained by the John Carroll society, the sponsor of D.C.’s current Red Mass. The name comes from the red wardrobes of those early judges. Washington’s early Red Masses were held at the Catholic University of America Law School, but they moved to a more public venue in 1952 at the request of the Archbishop of Washington.

When the tradition came to St. Matthew’s in February of 1953 in the heat of the Cold War, the government was keen to promote activities that showed that the U.S., unlike its communist adversaries, was not opposed to religion. President Eisenhower sent two members of his cabinet to attend that Mass, and the following year’s service was attended by Eisenhower himself, who—as a Presbyterian, and in keeping with longstanding American political worries about upsetting protestant voters—had not previously been to a Catholic service since becoming president. As time has passed, attendance by non-Catholic members of Washington’s legal elite has become more and more common: last year, six Supreme Court justices attended.

As TIME explained in a 1928 article about the first Red Mass in New York City—frequently identified as the first-ever official Red Mass in the U.S., though older continuously celebrated Red Masses do exist—attendance by non-Catholics is also a long-standing tradition:

“Each year in France & England this Mass (differing from the conventional form only in the insertion of added prayers to the Holy Ghost) takes place on the day the courts open. Similarly it was timed last week in Manhattan. Many a non-Catholic barrister sat with the kneeling Catholic Lawyers’ Guild, heard words of good counsel from Jesuit Paul L. Blakeley, listened to Patrick Cardinal Hayes. Said Cardinal Hayes: “In Catholic countries the great Crucifix is suspended high—it is impressive. It speaks—every wound in the body of Christ speaks, appeals to judge and to advocate, and also pours out mercy upon the guilty. And while we cannot have that symbol in our courts in our own beloved land, at the same time every Catholic lawyer ought to have it in his heart. Yea, in his mind, in his conduct; and if such a high ideal of your profession is before you—oh what a minister of justice you will be!”

http://time.com/4051932/red-mass-supreme-court/

Times change.

[No Vested Interest]

1. I attended the Red Mass for the Cincinnati/Northern KY area yesterday,

as a guest and my first time attending.
It was sponsored by the Saint Thomas More Society of Greater Cincinnati and celebrated by Archbishop Dennis Schnurr. A number of Knights of Columbus attended the Archbishop, and a contingent of persons I believe are Knights of Malta also attended.

Archbishop Schnurr's homily referred to the life and martyr's death of St. Thomas More, who is the patron of Lawyers. He also referred specifically to the ACA and what he perceived to be conflicts with freedom of religion. Without his text in front of me, I cannot be more specific, but suffice it to say he was less than sympathetic with the present Administration's positions. Since the majority of judgeships locally are held by Republicans, it is likely that few present disagreed with him.

[CBHagman]

2. I was there at St. Matthew's this morning.

Quite an inspiring service.

[rug]

3. Did any SC Jstices shoe up?

[No Vested Interest]

4. Without looking it up, I believe I saw (on TV) Scalia and perhaps Thomas leaving the church.

Likely some others as well.

[rug]

5. Thart's too bad. They'll probaly use yesterdasy's Gospel to outlaw divorce.

Gospel
Mk 10

The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked,
"Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?"
They were testing him.
He said to them in reply, "What did Moses command you?"
They replied,
"Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce
and dismiss her."
But Jesus told them,
"Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate."
In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.
He said to them,
"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery."

[No Vested Interest]

6. They would hear the same gospel in any RC Church on any given Sunday.

( I get your joke - who knows what conclusions those two will draw from anything they hear.)

Very little on Google re 2015 Red Mass in DC.
Only thing I can find is a brief C-span shot, showing Roberts, and Breyer in addition to Scalia and Thomas.
They were not identified individually on C-span, so it's unknowable on that site if any others attended.

[CBHagman]

7. I always struggle to glimpse the justices coming and going, but...

...I believe I saw Elena Kagan just as she entered the door of St. Matthew's.

The cardinal's opening remarks suggested the chief justice and all the associate justices were there, but I was never able to glimpse them after that.

[CBHagman]

8. Just found this footage from C-SPAN.

I'm not sure what's going on with the video quality or lack thereof.

http://www.c-span.org/video/?328565-2/red-mass-departures

http://www.c-span.org/video/?308494-3/red-mass-departures

http://www.c-span.org/video/?321910-101/red-mass-departures

[rug]

9. Thanks!