County, state and federal judges were joined by lawyers and law professors for the annual Red Mass Sept. 10 at the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Little Rock with Bishop Anthony B. Taylor and Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle.

Bishops urge responsibility, compassion at Red Mass

St. Thomas More Society sponsors annual Mass for members of legal profession

Published: September 22, 2012

By Dwain Hebda
Little Rock Correspondent

Dwain Hebda

County, state and federal judges were joined by lawyers and law professors for the annual Red Mass Sept. 10 at the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Little Rock with Bishop Anthony B. Taylor and Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle.

Dwain Hebda

The Cathedral of St. Andrew was the setting for the 18th annual Red Mass, celebrated by Bishop Anthony B. Taylor Sept. 10. The event is offered in honor of the Holy Spirit invoking divine enlightenment on judicial deliberations. A number of judges, lawyers and local politicians of all faiths were in attendance.

In his homily, Bishop Taylor urged those in positions of legal authority not to carve prudence from jurisprudence, saying one cannot exist without another in a moral society.

"Prudence enables us to discern and achieve the true good in the actual circumstances we face," Bishop Taylor said. "Juris is the law -- and jurisprudence is the prudent application of legal and moral principles to particular cases. If these moral principles are forgotten, you have legalism, not jurisprudence. Prudence keeps us focused realistically on the good we hope to achieve and the evil we hope to avoid."

Bishop Taylor's complete homily
Click here

Bishop Taylor added that justice demands society does not hide behind the status quo, citing numerous examples of discrimination and atrocity that was allowed to stand rather than struck down solely under the aegis of a flawed or biased statute. He urged the congregants to act with courage where injustice exists.

"We've all heard the refrain, 'It's the law, it's the law, it's the law' -- most recently on the topic of undocumented immigration -- as if the law itself were sacred, regardless of its provisions. We should never forget that segregation was a system of laws, totally legal and totally immoral. The inhumane internment of Japanese Americans during World War II was totally legal and totally immoral.

"Of course, we still might have to pay a heavy price for doing what is right. They didn't crucify Jesus for nothing. They crucified him because he broke human laws that were in conflict with divine law."

Following Mass, a luncheon was served in the adjoining McDonald Hall, featuring remarks by Archbishop J. Peter Sartain, former bishop of the Diocese of Little Rock and now head of the Archdiocese of Seattle.

Archbishop Sartain focused his remarks on remembering the significance of one's actions on another's life is many times a matter of perspective. He urged the crowd to never underestimate the impact one can have, positive or negative, through seemingly routine interactions.

"I have celebrated hundreds of weddings, hundreds of baptisms, thousands of confirmations and heard thousands of confessions in the past 34 years," he said. "Each took place on what was a 'normal' day for me, probably for the most part a day full of priestly routine. But each of those days was the most important day ever in the lives of thousands of people I have been privileged to serve as a priest. I hope and pray I never took any of them for granted.

"I think it's the same for you, too, whether you are an attorney, a judge, a priest, a deacon, an elected official, a mother, a father, an aunt or an uncle -- for we are all disciples of the Lord. We all have daily routines, but for the people who come to us, often the step they are about to take in our presence or the matter that weighs heavily on their hearts, means that this day is not even close to routine for them. It is the most important day of their lives.

"Each of them is the most important person in the world to us at that moment and each deserves the respect afforded to anyone going through the most important moment in his or her life."

Seated on the dais with Bishop Taylor and Archbishop Sartain was the day's other honoree, Ashley Courson, a native of Lake Village. She was recognized as the winner of a scholarship essay contest "How My Faith Will Affect My Practice" sponsored by the St. Thomas More Society, which also hosts the annual Red Mass.

A third-year law student at University of Arkansas Little Rock's Bowen School of Law, the 23-year-old wrote of her Catholic upbringing providing the moral footing she wants to build a legal career. She drew several comparisons to St. Thomas More, a former close aide of King Henry VIII, who was executed in 1535 for opposing the king's instigation of the English Reformation.