G
gilliam
Guest
Six U.S. Supreme Court justices attended the Roman Catholic Red Mass in Washington on Sunday, an annual ritual that heralds the new judicial season that begins on the first Monday in October.
Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan were in the front pews of the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle to watch the spectacle, replete with incense, bishops and priests in scarlet vestments and soaring choir music.
Justices greeted each other and the spouses who attended as if they were seeing each other for the first time since they adjourned for the summer in late June.
Breyer and Kagan, who are Jewish, have become regular attendees. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, also Jewish, stopped attending earlier in her tenure after one mass in which the sermon was “outrageously anti-abortion,” as she later described it.
The sermons in the last few years have been far less controversial, and Sunday’s sermon was completely devoid of hot-button references, political or social. It focused instead on the virtues of insight, inspiration and wisdom that are enhanced by religious faith.
“Elders were always held in such respect in generations past precisely because more than the accumulation of facts they had acquired wisdom,” the sermon stated. “It is the gift we hope to see reflected in our leaders, judges, confessors, spiritual directors and parents.”
Cardinal Donald Wuerl was scheduled to give the sermon to mark the 75th anniversary of the Washington Archdiocese, but he was summoned along with other cardinals to an “extraordinary synod” in Rome that began this weekend. Instead, Monsignor Peter Vaghi read Wuerl’s sermon.
Read more: nationallawjournal.com/legaltimes/id=1202672416189/Six-Justices-Attend-Annual-Red-Mass-in-DC#ixzz3FIj1Suyg
Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan were in the front pews of the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle to watch the spectacle, replete with incense, bishops and priests in scarlet vestments and soaring choir music.
Justices greeted each other and the spouses who attended as if they were seeing each other for the first time since they adjourned for the summer in late June.
Breyer and Kagan, who are Jewish, have become regular attendees. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, also Jewish, stopped attending earlier in her tenure after one mass in which the sermon was “outrageously anti-abortion,” as she later described it.
The sermons in the last few years have been far less controversial, and Sunday’s sermon was completely devoid of hot-button references, political or social. It focused instead on the virtues of insight, inspiration and wisdom that are enhanced by religious faith.
“Elders were always held in such respect in generations past precisely because more than the accumulation of facts they had acquired wisdom,” the sermon stated. “It is the gift we hope to see reflected in our leaders, judges, confessors, spiritual directors and parents.”
Cardinal Donald Wuerl was scheduled to give the sermon to mark the 75th anniversary of the Washington Archdiocese, but he was summoned along with other cardinals to an “extraordinary synod” in Rome that began this weekend. Instead, Monsignor Peter Vaghi read Wuerl’s sermon.
Read more: nationallawjournal.com/legaltimes/id=1202672416189/Six-Justices-Attend-Annual-Red-Mass-in-DC#ixzz3FIj1Suyg
