MADISON Lawyers from across the Diocese came to the auditorium at St. Paul Inside the Walls here Oct. 2 to take part in the Diocese’s Inaugural Red Mass with Bishop Serratelli as the main celebrant.
The Red Mass is a traditional Mass held every year in Catholic dioceses throughout the world for government officials, lawyers and judges for their continuous pursuit of justice in the world and their daily lives.
To begin the Red Mass, Bishop Serratelli said, “Today we honor and pray for God’s blessing for all those in the legal profession. Your work is so important to continue building up the Kingdom of God. We join you and your families today invoking the Holy Spirit for the guidance of almighty God in our lives.”
“The human law of pagan society collapsed before the law of the Gospel and the world was actually better for it,” Bishop Serratelli said in his homily. “All this happened because of faith — because of people who believed. This Red Mass makes us reflect on the impact of faith on your vocation in the legal profession. An impact so needed at a time when our civil laws contradict the teaching of Jesus and in a way marginalizes faith.”
He continued, “Faith means that we not only entrust our lives to the Risen Lord but that we live our lives according to his teachings. The Church’s teaching — Jesus’ teaching — has been pressing the moral issues of our day that face us. Sanctity of all life, human sexuality, family life, the needs of the poor, the needs of the stranger among us — Jesus’ teaching of the Church is clear.”
The Bishop spoke about the importance of a person’s private beliefs being consistent with his or her public life. “Some say they are privately in line with the Church’s teachings but politically they take a stance on the opposite side. How logical is that? Can anyone privately be against violence but say publicly if someone wants to be violent in their own home it’s not their concern? Can someone hold privately that slavery is an absolute evil and then publicly not support laws against human trafficking. Truth held privately must be lived publicly.”
“You, who share in the noble profession of law, actively participate in the Church’s redemption of the world,” the Bishop said. “Your action on behalf of justice is a dimension of the preaching of the Gospel. In a word you carry out in many places where it is so needed the real work of evangelization. May your faith truly guide your life in establishing God’s kingdom in this world.”
Since the founding of St. Paul’s in 2008, the Diocese’s evangelization center has had an active outreach to attorneys who would like to learn more about or deepen the practice of the profession of their faith and integrate it into their daily life and law practices.
With so many lawyers active in the Outreach to Catholic Lawyers at St. Paul’s, Father Paul Manning, executive director of St. Paul’s and the Diocese’s vicar for evangelization, announced at the Mass the newest initiative of the outreach — “Advocati Christi.” The “Advocates of Christ” are Catholic lawyers and judges who have entered into an elite fellowship of those who are committed to both the legal profession and the profession of their faith. The membership includes seasoned founding fellows, senior fellows who act as mentors and guides and fellows elect who are in the process of becoming members.
At the Inaugural Red Mass, St. Paul Inside the Walls honored Andrew Anselmi, founding director of McCusker, Anselmi, Rosen & Carvelli, P.C., who is a friend and supporter of Evangelization Center and chairman of the board of trustees of St. Paul’s. He also serves as chairman of the board of trustees of Assumption College for Sisters in Denville and a member of the Delbarton School alumni board in Morristown. Anselmi specializes in complex commercial, environmental and employment litigation.
Father Manning said, “He practices law in the same manner that he practices life — consistent with the faith and traditions of the Catholic Church.”
Bishop Serratelli presented Anselmi with a portrait of St. Thomas More in the presence of his wife, Soledad, his three children — Gabrielle, Luke and Nicholas — and his family and friends.
Accepting the award, Anselmi said, “We should all take stock in what we do in the administration of the law — to have empathy for our clients and not treat them as customers but as people who have placed their lives in our hands. In special cases, they become our friends from whom we can learn much. We should hold to the conviction that our zealous arguments with our adversaries are our greatest human engine of truth that the world has ever known. We have to appreciate the thin blue line of law enforcement that separates us from chaos and keeps us peaceful and secure in our communities and in our homes. We must revere the wisdom of our judges and the genius of our juries.”
Anselmi ended his speech by saying, “We rarely see pictures of Jesus smiling but I believe that Jesus smiles upon our administration of the law. To keep him smiling, we need to be patient and civil with one another — to not hide or obscure the truth but to find the better truth, to not grow cynical but to be animated by the Holy Spirit at all times keeping in our minds and our hearts the magnificence of it all.”