Cathedral to host annual Red Mass, White Mass

Friday, Oct. 21, 2016

SALT LAKE CITY — Members of the legal and health care fields will be celebrated during two separate Masses in the Cathedral of the Madeleine in coming weeks.

The tradition of the Red Mass began in Europe in the Middle Ages to ask the Holy Spirit to guide those in law professions. For the last nine years in the Diocese of Salt Lake City, all those involved in the legal system, including law enforcement and the military, have been honored at the annual Red Mass.

All are welcome to attend the event at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, said Ronald Yengich, a member of the local St. Thomas More Society, which organizes the Red Mass.

“It truly is an ecumenical effort,” Yengich said. “We want people of all faiths and people of no faith to come. We want people that are involved in the system of justice and people that aren’t involved in the system of justice to come. … In a world that is so contentious, in a world where everybody wants to point fingers, it is a time where, for example, prosecutors and defense attorneys, police and civil lawyers and judges can come together with a degree of harmony and spirituality to sit back and think about justice.”

The celebrant at the Nov. 4 Mass will be Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, who was the ninth Bishop of Salt Lake City.

“People will be happy to see him back, since he con-celebrated the first Red Mass [in the Diocese of Salt Lake City] with Monsignor Mayo and others,” Yengich said.

This year during the Mass, a number of lawyers, judges, police officers and other in the justice system and the military who have passed away will be honored with a roll call and a remembrance card, Yengich said.

The Red Mass derives its name from the red vestments worn by the clergy, which symbolize the Holy Spirit.

“In the Catholic tradition, justice has always been a significant part of our moral teaching,” Yengich said, adding that having the Mass at the cathedral also is symbolic because it “represents the spiritual center of Catholicism in Utah; and it’s the capital city, so it also represents the center of justice in Utah as well.”

Father Martin Diaz, rector of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, agreed, saying that “the cathedral is a church that is meant not just for a parish community but as a gathering place for the community at large.” 

The Red Mass represents an issue that is larger than the Catholic community, Fr. Diaz said. “All of us are concerned, whether Catholic or LDS or whatever. We honor the first responders, we honor the people who care for us, so it’s a sense of what it means to be a society, what it means to be a city, a county, a state.” 

The cathedral also will celebrate a White Mass, honoring those in the health care professions. 

“The tradition of the White Mass in the United States finds its origins in the development of the national Catholic Medical Association in the early 1930s. From its inception, the medical profession has been understood as a healing profession, a way in which Christ’s work continues upon the earth,” states the CMA’s website, www.cathmed.org.

As the Red Mass is under the patronage of St. Thomas More, the White Mass is under the patronage of St. Luke.

“We want those in those two communities to know that we are supporting them and praying for them,” Fr. Diaz said. “It always come back to the common good – that as a society we are responsible for each other, and that we take care of each other, so that it’s not individually ‘I’m on my own,’ or ‘It’s whatever I do that counts,’ but it’s when we work together that it works best and works within God’s plan.”

 

WHAT: Red Mass 

WHEN: Friday, Nov. 4, noon

WHERE: Cathedral of the Madeleine

                     309 E. South Temple, SLC

Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe will preside. Free and open to the public; join this civic celebration honoring judges, lawyers, law enforcement, military and all involved in the legal profession and the justice system. 

 

WHAT: White Mass

WHEN: Saturday, Nov. 12, 5 p.m.

WHERE: Cathedral of the Madeleine

                     309 E. South Temple, SLC

Free and open to the public; join this civic celebration honoring all those involved in the health care professions.