The official opening of the Supreme Court term, by law (28 U.S.C. Sec. 2), is the first Monday in October. But for more than 50 years, the informal launch of the season has come the day before, at the Roman Catholic Red Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in D.C. There, in a pageantry-filled ceremony, the Catholic hierarchy gives its blessing to the Supreme Court, lower courts, and other civic leaders often including presidents, diplomats, members of Congress, and Cabinet members.
This year's mass on Oct. 4 may be of special interest for two reasons: the identity of the cardinal who will give the sermon, and the fact that with the arrival of Sonia Sotomayor on the Court, fully two-thirds of the Supreme Court's nine justices are Catholic -- a record number.
The archdiocese has announced that Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston, will give the sermon at the Red Mass. DiNardo is the newest American cardinal, having been named to the College of Cardinals by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007. DiNardo made headlines last spring when he became the first American cardinal to criticize the University of Notre Dame for inviting President Barack Obama to speak at its commencement in May. “I find the invitation very disappointing,” DiNardo wrote in the Texas Catholic Herald. "Though I can understand the desire by a university to have the prestige of a commencement address by the President of the United States, the fundamental moral issue of the inestimable worth of the human person from conception to natural death is a principle that soaks all our lives as Catholics, and all our efforts at formation, especially education at Catholic places of higher learning."
Asked what DiNardo's semon topic will be on Sunday, Washington archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Gibbs said, "The Cardinal’s homily likely will focus on the Scripture readings and will connect them with a message for today, as most homilies do." Homilists for the mass are typically invited up to a year in advance.
In the last several years, most Red Mass sermons have struck universal themes of peace and harmony, but in the 1980s and 1990s, homilists sometimes injected Catholic doctrine on abortion or separation of church and state into their talks. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once told an interviewer that after attending a Red Mass where the sermon was "outrageously anti-abortion," she decided never to return.
The turnout from the Court is usually high at the Red Mass, and in the past it has drawn non-Catholic justices including the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Stephen Breyer. No word yet on which justices will attend this Sunday, but with the large number of Catholics on the Court, there is likely to be a strong showing. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and his wife Jane have long been active in the John Carroll Society, which sponsors the mass, and Jane Roberts is listed as the society's parliamentarian at its Web site. The other five Catholics on the Court are Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito Jr., and newcomer Sotomayor.
Political scientist Barbara Perry of Sweet Briar College said the record number of Catholics on the Court will make this year's Red Mass "particularly intriguing." Perry, who is working on a book on the Court's Catholic justices through history, said that with six Catholics on the Court, the public perception of the Red Mass could change. In recent years, she explained, the Mass has become a "quasi-religious, quasi-secular event," launching the Court term in a way that's analogous to a baccalaureate service at a school or university. That perception was strengthened by the typical photo in the following day's newspapers: Rehnquist, a non-Catholic, shaking hands with red-robed cardinals on the steps of St. Matthew's.
But with six Catholics on the Court led by a Catholic chief justice, Perry added, "we've gone past the critical mass, so to speak," possibly returning the Mass to the appearance of a more denominational religious event. In any event, Perry said, the mass will at a minimum "draw attention" to the Catholic domination of the Court. Just this week in a class she teaches, Perry said, a student wondered aloud if the President who appoints the next new justice would shy away from a naming a seventh Catholic to the Court.
Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, agreed that "some people's eyebrows will be raised" by the confluence of the Red Mass and such a high number of Catholic justices. But Lynn stressed that the number of justices of one religion or another cannot be a a cause for concern. "It's the flip side of not imposing a religious test for public office."
No matter what the religion of the justices, though, Lynn has long believed the Red Mass is a bad idea that the church should put an end to. The Red Mass, he said, "still represents the Catholic bishops having a unique and powerful opportunity to promote their doctrine" to an essentially "captive audience."
We plan to attend Sunday's Red Mass, so check the BLT Sunday afternoon for a report.
Comments