Annual Red Mass

MADISON  Trial attorney Michael Critchley Sr. recalled the rock-solid faith of St. Thomas More, the Church’s patron of the legal profession, after having experienced the joy of receiving the diocesan Advocati Christi Award Oct. 1.

The award was presented to Critchley after the second annual diocesan Red Mass at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization at Bayley-Ellard here. The honoree challenged the many judges, lawyers and other legal professionals who attended the liturgy, to emulate the saint by living their “convictions and beliefs” everyday — especially in times of crisis.

Judges, lawyers, other legal personnel, family and friends gathered in St. Paul’s auditorium to honor Critchley of the Critchley, Kinum & DeNoia law firm in Roseland and to pray that God confers the Holy Spirit on members of the legal profession during the Red Mass. After Mass, Bishop Serratelli presented Critchley with the Advocati Christi Award — a portrait of St Thomas More — not only for his commitment to the legal profession, but also to the profession of his faith. A reception outside St Paul’s followed the Mass.

“I thank you for this holy honor. I am undeserving. This is one of the achievements of my life,” said Critchley about the Advocati Christi Award, which was given to him by the fellowship of Catholic judges and attorneys that he helped establish at St. Paul’s a few years ago, also named Advocati Christi. “Judges have to balance the rights of the individual and the interests of society, which are difficult decisions. They serve as instruments of goodness. We lawyers have been at the forefront of civil rights. We often represent people on the margins of society. We are not just doing a job — we have a personal commitment to justice. We also serve as instruments of goodness,” he said.

In his remarks, Critchley — who has successfully tried more than 100 cases in Federal and State courts and in numerous civil matters involving complex corporate disputes over his more than 30-year career — spoke about St. Thomas More. As England’s lord chancellor, he steadfastly refused to approve King Henry VIII’s divorce and remarriage and establishment of the Church of England. St. Thomas More was charged with high treason and beheaded in London, on July 6, 1535, the honoree said.

“St. Thomas had the ability to know what he stood for and what he believed. He was prepared to sacrifice his reputation, and ultimately his life, but he never bent to the conscience to the times. You measure yourself in times of crisis,” said Critchley, who earned a law degree from Seton Hall University, South Orange. “St. Thomas still speaks to us today more than 500 years after his death.”

Before the award ceremony, Bishop Serratelli served as the main celebrant and homilist of the Red Mass. Concelebrating priests were Father Paul Manning, St. Paul’s executive director and diocesan vicar for evangelization; Father Pawel Tomczyk, director of diocesan Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and Youth Ministry and chaplain at William Paterson University, Wayne; and Father Kevin Corcoran, the Bishop’s priest/secretary. Sponsoring the Mass was Advocati Christi, a fellowship of Catholic lawyers and judges who are committed to their profession and their faith and seek to mentor other legal professionals.

In his homily, Bishop Serratelli told the legal professionals here — not all of whom were Catholic — that “our deeds show our deepest concerns and real intentions.”

“Proof of our concern for the hungry is putting food on their table. Proof of our sense of hospitality is putting out the welcome mat,” Bishop Serratelli said. “Jesus is challenging us always to say, ‘yes,’ to the will of the law — to the order that God has imposed on his Creation — and then do that without hesitation. The proof ultimately that we are truly children of God is in putting all our efforts into doing God’s will, obeying his Commandments and enforcing his law of love and mercy in our private lives, our professional lives and most of all, and most courageously, before others in the public square,” he said.

Lauded by judges and colleagues alike, Critchley once served as an assistant prosecutor in the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and assistant counsel to Gov. Brendan Byrne, before founding Critchley, Kinum & DeNoia in 1975. Various publications have described him as “just a stunning trial lawyer,” who “occupies a distinguished position with the New Jersey Bar” with “a colossal reputation for his experience of the most complex cases.” He also helped found Advocati Christi through his participating in the group’s mock trial on the existence of God and supports Assumption College for Sisters, Denville.

Before Bishop Serratelli presented the award, the Hon. John Michael Vazquez, a U.S. district judge for the District of New Jersey, made public comments that described Critchley’s commitment to every case that he accepts — large or small.

“Michael has the same approach: tireless preparation; absolute confidence in abilities to represent his clients; and absolute fearlessness when he walks into the courtroom — and he does so with his innate gifts of oration and presentation. He represents his clients with every essence of his being,” said Vazquez, who spoke about the honoree’s compassion in representing, for little or no money, an abused wife, who killed her husband, and won the case — years before the courts recognized battered wife syndrome. Vazquez also said, “When Michael accepts you as friend, he accepts you for who you are. When you are at the lowest point, he will give you his hand and guide you out.”

At the conclusion of the Red Mass, Father Manning remarked that this special liturgy “reminds us of the truth that we sometimes forget and need to know always: that the foundations of the world and of human culture rest on the bedrock of the wisdom and creativity of the Divine Being.

“Our practice of law, our deliberation of right and wrong and our discernment and imposition of justice all presuppose an objective standard of what is true and good…that orients us toward the One, who is law-giver and love-granter,” Father Manning told the legal professionals.