[Photo: CNS]

Below from CNN.Com

Vice President Joe Biden joined five Supreme Court justices to attend Sunday’s annual Red Mass, the Roman Catholic service for the courts that has drawn criticism in recent years.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Stephen Breyer and Clarence Thomas attended the service, held at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, on the eve of the court’s new term.

The Catholic News Service gives a good overview of the service and its background here.

Speaking at the 56th annual Red Mass in the nation’s capital, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston said today’s followers of Christ must allow God’s word to abide in their hearts and, guided by the Holy Spirit, they must show God’s justice in the world.

“Graced in this manner, we respond in our personal lives of faith and witness and in our professional lives too, not only for the good of our souls but also for the sake of our professions,” said the cardinal, who delivered the homily at the Oct. 4 Red Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle.

Would I have attended this year’s Red Mass? A similar event? Not an easy answer for me. And that’s surprising.

Do I think that mixing one’s faith and professional life is a good thing? Depends. Would I have attended the Red Mass? No. Would I have attended a similar service, say, one sponsored by the Society of Christian Philosophers? Maybe. The Society meets at the three regional meetings of the American Philosophical Association, of which I am a member. I’ve attended one non-APA related meeting. I know some of the folks who were instrumental in getting the Society going.

I’m nowhere near Anne Rice’s position on organized religion, but I do have to draw the line, at least right now, with the Vatican Roman Catholic hierarchy and the American hierarchy. Does that mean I won’t step foot in a Catholic church? No. I’m still lovin’ my peeps in the pews. It means I don’t think I could attend such a hierarchically, high-profile Roman Catholic event filled with cardinals and bishops who, Lord only knows knew what, when, where, why and how the “bodies”, so to speak, are buried and who disposed of them. Or at least should have known.

Of course, I’m the one who advocates for an American break from the Vatican anyway in order to have a truly parochial American Catholic Church. But that’s another and quite a long story.