Annual Red Mass kicks off legislative session

By Joyce Coronel | January 15, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

Lawyers, judges and lawmakers from around Arizona will gather at St. Mary’s Basilica for the Red Mass at 5:30 p.m., Jan. 20. Sponsored by the Thomas More Society, the annual Mass takes place near the opening of the legislative session.

Ron Johnson, executive director of the Arizona Catholic Conference, the public policy arm for the three Arizona dioceses, said all lawyers are invited to attend the Mass at which Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted will celebrate.

“A primary focus is to ask the Holy Spirit to guide the actions of those in the legal, judicial and political arenas,” Johnson said.

The Thomas More Society has invited Archbishop Joseph Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City to give the homily at the Mass. Archbishop Naumann made national news last May when he asked Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas to stop receiving Communion until repudiating her pro-abortion stand.

Gov. Sebelius, who has vetoed pro-life legislation and whose political campaigns received funds from infamous late-term abortionist George Tiller, responded that she was obligated to uphold state and federal laws as well as court decisions related to abortion.

Ironically, the sponsor of the Red Mass, the Thomas More Society, takes its name from the 16th century Chancellor of England who was beheaded for his refusal to compromise his Catholic principles when faced with a political decision. St. Thomas More, the patron saint of lawyers and politicians, would not condone Henry VIII’s divorce and declaration that he was the head of the Catholic Church in England.

Johnson characterized Archbishop Naumann as “one of the most pro-life bishops in the country. I very much look forward to meeting him and hearing his homily.”