WILMINGTON, DE — His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, USA, and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), preached the homily Sunday at the annual Red Mass in the Diocese of Wilmington, DE, calling on members of the legal profession to practice the virtues of wisdom, courage, and compassion as they go about serving “the common good” with “justice and charity.”
Wilmington, like dozens of Catholic dioceses throughout the country, celebrates the Red Mass each year on the first Sunday in October, the day before the U.S. Supreme Court begins its annual term. The purpose is to invoke the blessings of the Holy Spirit upon those who practice and teach law—judges, attorneys, law school professors, and the like. The Red Mass in Wilmington is supported each year by the St. Thomas More Society, a fellowship of lawyers committed to upholding the highest ethical principles and promoting interfaith understanding.
Bishop William E. Koenig, D.D., was the principal celebrant in the 4:00 p.m. liturgy at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Church in Greenville, where Archbishop Broglio reflected on the readings including Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14, wherein the imprisoned St. Paul calls on his fellow disciple to “bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.” Archbishop Broglio recalled the inspiring World War II example of Father Domenico Mercante, an Italian priest who volunteered to stand before a Nazi German firing squad in place of members of his flock, and the German soldier who, unwilling to pull the trigger in good conscience, laid down his weapon and joined the priest in front of the gun barrels. Both died in a “hail of bullets.”
“We do not know the name of the soldier,” Archbishop Broglio preached, “but he obviously understood that he could not be ordered to violate his conscience. He bore his share of the hardship of the Gospel with God-given strength. Years later at the dedication of a monument to the two, the Italian Minister of Defense stated: ‘The example of a priest and a soldier dying by the same rifle fire, in order that not only the written law but the unwritten law too should be respected, provides an example of great moral value.’”
Archbishop Broglio elaborated, “There is a great temptation to measure life, both spiritual and daily—only in terms of accomplishments, deeds, and those things in which I am the protagonist, the star. The soldier and priest illustrate what the sacred authors we have just heard teach us: to adhere to another vision. Faith is in a Person who teaches us to depend on Almighty God and put everything in the perspective of eternal life. One commentator suggested that the Gospel passage reminds us to pray to God not for justice, but for mercy, because, just like the Apostles, we overestimate our accomplishments and underestimate His expectations.” Gazing at the Congregation, Archbishop Broglio concluded: “May you be inspired by the charity of Father Mercante and commitment to the dignity of the human person manifested by the anonymous paratrooper.”
Read the full text of Archbishop Broglio’s homily here.
The Red Mass is a tradition dating back many centuries to the tradition of the Roman Rota (Court). The name comes from the color of the vestments worn by the celebrants—red, the color of fire and a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
Earlier Sunday, the Archdiocese of Washington celebrated its own Red Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, where Archbishop Broglio joined His Eminence, Robert Cardinal McElroy, Archbishop of Washington, and other priests at the altar in concelebration. Just prior to that Mass, DC police averted potential catastrophe by arresting a man allegedly armed with a Molotov cocktail on the steps of the cathedral. No one was hurt.