Posted on 09/30/2007 2:06:21 PM PDT by Canticle_of_Deborah
Some Catholic churches across the country will have a distinctly legal flavor on Sunday. It’s “Red Mass,” a tradition begun in medieval times and resurrected in the U.S. in 1928. In a number of archdioceses, the annual ritual is held on the Sunday before the Supreme Court’s fall session opens to pray for justices, judges and attorneys. Red Mass invokes the Holy Spirit’s guidance in the administration of justice for the coming year. Judges and lawyers of all faiths are invited. (The red, of course, symbolizes the tongues of fire that descended on Jesus’s Apostles.)
With Supreme Court justices in attendance, mass at St. Matthew’s in D.C. (pictured) has received the most attention and engendered some controversy in past years. Recently, homilies have been fairly uncontroversial, making general calls for peace and harmony, according to a 2006 Legal Times story. But in the 1990s “it was not uncommon for a homilist to speak of the rights of unborn children,” wrote Tony Mauro for the Legal Times.
After attending one of the more politically charged sermons years back, Justice Ginsburg reportedly never attended again. Indeed, the LT story quotes an exerpt from a book called “Stars of David” in which Ginsburg said: “Before every session [of the Court], there’s a Red Mass. And the justices get invitations from the cardinal to attend that. And a good number of the justices show up every year. I went one year, and I will never go again, because this sermon was outrageously anti-abortion. Even the Scalias — although they’re very much of that persuasion — were embarrassed for me.”
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
We used to have a Red Mass at St. Thomas More in Norman. University of Oklahoma law school folks would attend.
Sounds like a Soviet Mass..LOL.
Hmm, now that you mention it, we did have a Red Mass this morning at St. Benedict Abbey. Father James waxed eloquent about the rights of millions upon millions of America’s aborted/murdered. They were the poorest of the poor, even more so than Lazarus since they’re completely invisible.
Difficult to believe. I've rarely heard abortion mentioned at St. Matthew's (DC's Catholic cathedral), but Father Scalia has given quite a few homilies on it. They might have been embarrassed for her if she walked out in the middle.
Men wearing dresses to work preaching to other men who wear dresses to work.
Was that supposed to be funny, Mr. Urine?
Ya, it beats heck out of making inane comments on the internet.
Don’t feed the trolls..........they enjoy getting a rise.
No, that’s not why she stopped going. She stopped going because she got tired of the organist breaking into the Wicked Witch’s theme from “The Wizard of Oz” every time she entered the church.
The Catholic Church is anti-abortion?
Su-freaking-prise! Why have they waited until the day of the Red Mass to reveal this?
I’m sorry if this rocked Justice Ginsburg’s world, but can she really be so clueless?
For the Holy Innocents, the unborn slain through abortion.
Cute!
LOL, good one :)
There’s no such thing as “outrageously anti-abortion.” There’s only “outrageously pro-abortion,” like Justice Ginsburg herself and whomever Hillary will pick to replace her.
And how typical of Darth Vader Ginsberg to expect that the RC Church conform itself to her notions of right and wrong!
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