The Red Mass

August 8, 2010: During the American Bar Association convention to be held in San Francisco, we are sponsoring a special Red Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral at the 9 a.m. Sunday Mass. The celebrant will be Auxiliary Bishop William Justice. The Cathedral choir will be singing traditional Gregorian Chants. After the Mass, our Society will be hosting a reception in the meeting rooms below the Cathedral. Please plan to attend and help us host the ABA delegates and judges from all across the country. Bring your family and friends. You can RSVP by sending J. Dennis McQuaid an e-mail that you will be there at or you can contact Adrian Driscoll.

October 21, 2010: Annual Red Mass and Dinner. CHANGE OF LOCATION: This year's Red Mass will be held at the beautiful Church of Notre Dame des Victoires on Bush Street starting at 5:30 p.m. Dinner will follow at the Family Club at Bush and PowelL. Parking is available across from the Church in the Sutter-Stockton Garage. The principal celebrant will again be Archbishop George Niederauer. The recipient of this year's St. Thomas More Award will be the former President of the St. Thomas More Society and one of our most inspirational leaders, Hugh Donohoe.

2009 St. Thomas More Award Recipient -
FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL JUSTICE ROBERT L. DONDERO
Thursday, October 22, 2009

New: Read Justice Dondero's Remarks >>
New: Read Archbishop Niederauer's Red Mass Homily >>

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St. Thomas More Society of San Francisco is pleased to announce that the Robert L. Dondero, First District Court of Appeal Justice, was the 2009 recipient of the Saint Thomas More Award.

The award was bestowed upon Justice Dondero on October 22, 2009 during the Red Mass at Saints Peter and Paul's Church. Our annual banquet was followed at the Italian American Athletic Club.

We are very pleased to announce that Archbishop Niederauer celebrated the Mass and deliver the homily.

St. Thomas More Society of San Francisco sponsors the annual Red Mass and dinner, at which the Society presents the St. Thomas More Award to one who exemplifies the ideals of service and sacrifice in the pursuit of justice so conspicuously reflected in the life and death of St. Thomas More. The Red Mass continues a tradition begun by English barristers and judges in the 13th century of offering prayers to the Holy Spirit that all men and women in the legal profession, the judiciary and the public life be blessed with wisdom and understanding. Red vestments are traditionally worn at the Mass to commemorate the scarlet robes of the Lord High Justices.

Justice Dondero's Remarks:

Thanks to the following persons for this event: Gregory Schopf, Dennis McQuaid, Members of the Board of Directors of St. Thomas More Society who selected me, Father Charles Gagan for his remarks, Wife & Daughters for their support ----You have to always thank your family for their support.

I first learned I had been selected for the award on June 8, 2009. I had just returned from a vacation in Hawaii with my wife and I was at the Courthouse at 400 Mc Allister reviewing materials that had accumulated while away. I received in the morning a call from Greg Schopf, president of the St. Thomas More Society, telling me that I had been selected to receive the award at the Red Mass. I was quite surprised by the notice, asking Greg was the organization sure they wanted to give it to me. He indicated he was very sure and we discussed the details for this Red Mass. A couple of hours later, oddly enough, I received a phone call from the Governor’s office, and the Appointment Secretary, Sharon Majors-Lewis. She advised me in the strictest confidence that the Governor was going to elevate me to the Court of Appeal. Hence in the span of a few hours on the same day, I realized the experience of the Biblical admonition, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s. Needless to say, I could have bounced home that evening.

Each honor was a most humbling experience. I, however, want to focus on the first honor tonight--- the St. Thomas More Award. In all candor, I can say I am most surprised and shocked by this honor. I am so awed because it is named in honor of a man who was martyred for his beliefs. I have seen on stage the presentation of A Man for All Seasons and viewed the film starring Paul Schoefield. I am awed by this giant. He was a man much more religious than me; he even studied for the priesthood before he decided he could do more as a lay person. He wrote Utopia, studied with Erasmus, was a respected lawyer, colleague of Wolsey and Henry VIII, eventually became the Lord Chancellor of England---indeed the first layman to serve as the Lord Chancellor. Also, the man was named the patron saint of politicians by Pope John Paul II. And because of his successes as a lawyer and his strength as a spiritual person, he is today honored in major cities of this nation at Red Masses annually.

That is not me and it is probably not any person in this room.

When you receive an award like this and reflect on the life of its inspiration-----you need to ask yourself the question: What is it about Thomas More that allows you---the recipient---to at least attempt to share in such an honor. You think about this question and even meditate on it for answer.

Sainthood is hardly the answer---at least for me. Martyrdom is not an option I wish to consider at the moment. Any evaluation of this issue needs to be assessed----at least for most of us-----according to Shakespeare’s admonition in Julius Caesar: “The fault dear Brutus is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” We are mortals, subject to humanness and therefore, error.

Yet there is at least one feature of our humanity that can be developed to make us like Thomas More----and that is the matter of conscience. We are all human and therefore we all have one.

Pope Paul VI described conscience as the “most secret core and sanctuary of a man. Where he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in a person’s depths.”

More was obsessed with being true to his conscience. Being conscientious---true to his moral code-----was in the forefront of his life especially as he faced Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell over the issue of the Act of Supremacy. Thomas More’s prison letters in the last year of his life contain serious reflection on being conscientious----honoring his beloved family obligations, his king as the national leader, and of course, his God.

We also live our lives as conscientious, motivated people. Call it a moral compass or a rooted spirituality----by reflecting on values-----core values of our lives and applying them daily to our conduct-----our conscience becomes as Father Robert Araujo Society of Jesus noted, “well formed.” The well formed conscience will separate and indeed elevate us, from the selfish and narcissist who thinks only about personal gain or attention. I believe a well formed or nobler conscience will allow me to judge fairer, follow the meaning of the law more diligently, and of course exercise compassion within the legal framework. To you in this group who practice law in all arenas, you will be able to strike, as advocates, fair but not foul blows as you litigate or make decisions in your legal practice. To those who are involved in fund raising or charitable activity, or in the area of finance or the corporate world, the well formed conscience essentially reflects the golden rule---do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

Receiving this award reaffirms the need for me to be reflective of my core values and spiritual personality. Complacency and the moment can present distractions, but your recognition tonight and reflecting on this award brings me back and renews the focus. Thank you very much.

Archbishop Niederauer's Red Mass Homily

For the twenty years or so, we have heard the word “values” very often in public life: family values; national values; traditional values. Values are claimed by both political parties and all candidates, on each side in every political issue.

What are values? Briefly, values are judgments and beliefs about what matters and what does about what matters more than something else. We make assumptions about our lives and then we make choices based on those assumptions. Those assumptions embody our values and our choices express them.

Jesus Christ was in favor of values even before the Republicans and Democrats discovered them. Today’s gospel reading, from Matthew, contains the opening sentences of Jesus’s famous Sermon on the Mount. This passage is called the “Beatitudes”, because in these sentences Jesus declares who in this world he considers beatus or blessed--happy. This is where Jesus announces the values of the kingdom of God which he has come to proclaim and establish. The Beatitudes are the platform for his public ministry and for his work of redeeming us and making us his own people, now and forever.

The Beatitudes are not new laws. They are new ways of living beyond mere human laws. They are values for kingdom living. If we take these Beatitude values seriously in our daily lives, we will find that they not only fly in the face of conventional wisdom, they blow that wisdom apart! These values turn human expectation upside down and inside out: blessed are the poor, the meek, the sorrowing, the persecuted? Our world commonly assumes that fulfillment comes mainly through earthly goods.

Years ago, when I was teaching in the seminary, I was asked to give a talk about these Beatitudes to future priests. In preparation, I asked myself what the beatitudes meant to me? I also asked whether they were the only values or beatitudes I had ever heard of as I grew up in a middle¬ class Catholic neighborhood in the 1950s. No, they were not. Alongside these Scriptural beatitudes, I had heard other “beatitudes” in the world around me. So with apologies to Matthew, Chapter 5, and Luke, Chapter 6, these are some of those worldly Beatitudes I remember hearing in the air around me:

Let’s be fair: most of those values are not sinful, they just aren’t good ultimate values, and when they try to pass as ultimate, they sound narrow and shallow.

The Beatitude wisdom of Jesus contradicts what we might call “natural cleverness.” You know the kind of cleverness I mean: When someone starts a sentence by saying, “Now several years ago, if I had been really smart, I would have…” How do you expect that sentence to end” “I would have sold all my dot-com stocks” Or, “I would have bought that house across the street real cheap when those people had to see so fast.” That’s natural cleverness. You don’t usually expect to say “Now last year, if I had been really smart, I would have: made a weekend retreat; set aside some time for prayer each day; volunteered to serve meals to the homeless center one day each month; cleaned out my closet and sent things I never wear to the St. Vincent de Paul Society for the needy.” We don’t usually talk that that. Alas, too often we don’t think like that either.

Compared to natural cleverness, the values of Jesus can seem wimpish, even foolish. That’s why our second reading is so important: St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, saying that Christians are not wise, influential or well-born in a worldly sense; that we often seem weak and foolish, compared to the strong and clever ones of this world. But, Paul says, God has chosen the weak and foolish to “show up” the strong and clever ones, and God our Father has given us his Son, Jesus Christ, to be our wisdom and justice and holiness and salvation, so that we can do no boasting before God, only in God.

We’ve had fair warning: these beatitudes of Jesus will not make us rich or famous or powerful or envied, or even comfy – they will make us God’s children and give us a share in his life forever. Are we still interested?

Before we answer, let’s take a close look at the meaning of some of Christ’s Beatitudes.

“How blest are the poor in spirit: the reign of God is theirs”--while the rich in spirit want abundance, control and authority, the poor know they need everything from God.

“Blest too are the sorrowing; they shall be consoled.” We maximize pleasure and most of all avoid pain and suffering. Suffering is not to be sought, but neither is it to be avoided at all costs, particularly the costs of becoming fully human (“without a hurt the heart is hollow”) [Laurie sings here] of being open to others’ suffering and joy; of experiencing the kind of vulnerability which caring and loving lead to; of sharing the Cross of Christ.

“Blest are the lowly; they shall inherit the land.” We bristle at being overlooked, passed by, neglected, unappreciated. “We’re NO.1!” The lowly aren’t grovelers, but they inherit the land because they know they don’t own it; they don’t grasp and hoard; they share and are generous.

“Blest are they who hunger and thirst for holiness; they shall have their fill.” We are called to a passion for life in Christ; a craving for goodness. Not “Lord, you know what I really want next” but “Lord, help me know what you want next” - for me, from me.

“Blest are the peace-makers, for they shall be called sons of God.” We scorn do¬-gooders and bleeding hearts, but Jesus was one, IS one, and he will judge us. Face head on the difficulties of building solid, trusting relationships between people, with people.

“Blest are those persecuted for holiness’ sake; the reign of God is theirs.” Living the beatitudes COSTS – we will seem “fools” - it will be embarrassing; we will not always win or finish first; Jesus was persecuted and considered a fool right up until the moment when he entered into glory. Those are his values. He proclaims them to us. Now it’s our move. And tomorrow and the day after, and all our lives, it will always be our move - and He will always be there - as he is here--to urge us on, to pick us up when we fall to nourish and strengthen us, forgive and console us - be with us and within us—but in the value we live by, it is our choice, it is our move.

BEATITUDES (To be contrasted with Mt. 5: 3-12 and Lk. 6:20-26)

Blessed are those who own their own home;

Blessed are those who have a car, a stereo, and a hair dryer;

Blessed are those who go to college;

Blessed are those who can write their own ticket, are self:-employed, keep getting better jobs, promotions, or more money;

Blessed are those who live on clean, well-lighted, safe streets;

Blessed are those who know the right people, have reservations, make wise investments, can afford nice vacations;

Blessed are the winners;

Blessed are those who are charming, clever, witty, and can handle people well;

Blessed are those who live in a place where, the movies are first-run, and change weekly;

Blessed are those who get waited on by others in a store, and don’t have to wait on others themselves;

Blessed are those who can demand and get respect for who they are, for what they say and do;

Blessed are those with a high standard of living and a strong national defense;

Blessed are the young, the strong, the healthy, and especially those who are sexually attractive to one another;

Blessed are hospital patients only if they have a private room or if necessary, a semi-private room, but in no case a bed in a ward;

Woe to renters, immigrants, the unemployed, drifters, oddballs, the sick, the elderly, and people who talk to themselves out loud on the bus- - avoid them like the plague, because losing is catching!

2008 St. Thomas More Award Recipient - THE HONORABLE MING W. CHIN

Thursday, October 23, 2008
5:30 pm - Red Mass
7:00 pm - Dinner

St. Thomas More Society of San Francisco is pleased to announce that the Honorable Ming W. Chin, Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court, will be the 2008 recipient of the Saint Thomas More Award.

The award will be bestowed upon Justice Chin on October 23, 2008 during the Red Mass at Saints Peter and Paul's Church. Our annual banquet will be followed at the Italian American Athletic Club.

St. Thomas More Society of San Francisco sponsors the annual Red Mass and dinner, at which the Society presents the St. Thomas More Award to one who exemplifies the ideals of service and sacrifice in the pursuit of justice so conspicuously reflected in the life and death of St. Thomas More. The Red Mass continues a tradition begun by English barristers and judges in the 13th century of offering prayers to the Holy Spirit that all men and women in the legal profession, the judiciary and the public life be blessed with wisdom and understanding. Red vestments are traditionally worn at the Mass to commemorate the scarlet robes of the Lord High Justices.

2007 St. Thomas More Award Recipient - THE HONORABLE CARLOS T. BEA

October 18, 2007 - 70th Anniversary Red Mass Dinner Celebration Honoree Judge Carlos T. Bea and Archbishop George H. Niederauer, Ph.D.
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The Red Mass Awardees