Praying for consistent delivery of justice

By Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic

 

KEY WEST | Judges and members of the court of Monroe County gathered at St. Mary Star of the Sea Basilica in Key West to celebrate the Red Mass March 14, 2025.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski, the main celebrant, said at the beginning of the Mass, “I am very happy to be in Key West this morning, to celebrate this Red Mass, invoking the Holy Spirit to help members of the judiciary and other officials in the courtroom and their serious duties as public servants, and so we ask the Holy Spirit to pray for them, to give them wisdom.”

He also explained some elected officials who would normally attend the Mass, “are in Tallahassee because today happens to be Monroe Day at the Capitol, so we have to keep them in our prayers too.”

The Mass also coincided with the early morning blessing and ribbon-cutting ceremony for Catholic Charities' new St. Bede's Village Apartments, a 10-unit complex of affordable, permanent housing for the disabled in the Key West area.

In his homily, the archbishop said, “As we begin today, praying for our judges and the members of the court, the Red Mass also recalls the memory and invokes the intercession of a remarkable Catholic lawyer, who proved to be a ‘Man for all Seasons,’ Sir Thomas More.”

The archbishop pointed out that in 2000, St. John Paul II named St. Thomas More the patron of statesmen and politicians, and he mentioned what John Paul wrote at that time about Thomas More.

“His life teaches us that government is above all an exercise of virtue. Unwavering in this rigorous moral stance, this English statesman placed his own public activity at the service of the person, especially if that person was weak or poor; he dealt with social controversies with a superb sense of fairness; he was vigorously committed to favoring and defending the family; he supported the all-around education of the young. His profound detachment from honors and wealth, his serene and joyful humility, his balanced knowledge of human nature and of the vanity of success, his certainty of judgment rooted in faith — these all gave him that confident inner strength that sustained him in adversity and in the face of death. His sanctity shone forth in his martyrdom, but it had been prepared by an entire life of work devoted to God and neighbor.”

“'Profound detachment,' 'joyful humility,' 'balanced knowledge of human nature,' 'judgment rooted in faith,' 'confident inner strength,'” these are qualities that everyone, and not just lawyers and judges should aspire to,” added Archbishop Wenski.

He also told those present, “The legal profession is a noble calling – one that calls for continual courage, vigilance and a dedicated commitment to the people you serve and to our system of justice. The great achievement of the American people has been the attainment of liberty for its citizens through the rule of law. At its best, in our system of justice, the rights of the individual and proper respect for property ownership are protected from the grasp of the powerful and wealthy.”

Addressing the judges and the members of the court he said, “Our craft as lawyers and as officers of the court has as its foundation, its reason for being, the principle emblazoned on the façade of the Supreme Court building, ‘Equal justice under the law.’”

“The purpose of the Red Mass is to pray for the judiciary and law enforcement and those who work in the justice system, to pray that they deliver justice consistently, as God would want. It is difficult to undertake and so we need the prayers,” said Judge Timothy Koenig, judge of the 16th Judicial Circuit, Monroe County, one of the seven judges present at the Mass.