[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 127 (Monday, November 13, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10872-S10873]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              THE RED MASS

 Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, today I wish to share with this 
body the recent remarks of the new Archbishop of Washington, Donald W. 
Wuerl, at this year's 53rd Annual Red Mass in Washington, DC. I have 
had the pleasure of working with Archbishop Wuerl in his previous 
service as the 11th bishop of Pittsburgh, PA. For 18 years, he 
ministered to 800,000 Catholics throughout southwestern Pennsylvania 
with generosity and compassion.
  The Red Mass is celebrated each year in Washington, DC., at the start 
of the Supreme Court session and traditionally is held in the Cathedral 
of St. Matthew the Apostle. Supreme Court Justices, judges, Government 
officials, lawyers, and people of all faiths regularly attend the Mass 
to offer prayers for those who administer justice. This Mass is 
sponsored by the John Carroll Society. The Red Mass enjoys a rich 
history, originating many centuries ago in European capitols. Red Mass 
derives its name from the traditional color of vestments worn by the 
celebrants of the Mass, signifying the scarlet robes worn by royal 
judges who attended the Mass centuries ago. The tradition in the United 
States began in 1928 in New York City and spread to cities across the 
country.
  I hope that in sharing his comments with my colleagues, we will 
continue the ongoing conversations among people of faith about the 
roles of faith, law, and values in our system of democracy.
  Mr. President, I ask that the remarks of Archbishop Wuerl to which I 
referred be printed in the Record.
  The material follows.

                            Red Mass Homily


                      FAITH, LAW AND HUMAN VALUES

          Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington

 Cathedral of Matthew the Apostle, Washington, DC, Sunday, October 1, 
                                  2006

       Brothers and Sisters in the Lord, It is a privilege for me 
     to join each of you at this 53rd annual Red Mass sponsored by 
     the John Carroll Society as part of a noble tradition in our 
     nation's capital of invoking the blessing of God's Holy 
     Spirit on all who are engaged in the service of the law, 
     especially the members of the judiciary.
       Recently I received a beautiful plant rooted in a very 
     attractive container with gorgeous flowers mixed throughout 
     the arrangement. Within a few short days, however, even 
     though I took great care of it, some of the flowers began to 
     fade. It was only after I removed one of the withered flowers 
     that I made the startling discovery that not all of the 
     flowers were attached to the plant and rooted in the soil, 
     but instead simply were placed in little plastic containers. 
     As the flowers were not part of the plant and not rooted in 
     the soil, they had no source of nourishment and died.
       A beautiful flower in an isolated container is much like 
     the branch that Jesus speaks about in today's Gospel text 
     from St. John, the branch that gets cut off, detached from, 
     isolated from the vine. Such a branch cannot bear much 
     fruit--certainly not for long.
       Whatever image we use, the lesson is the same. We cannot be 
     cut off from our rootedness. We cannot become isolated from 
     our connectedness and expect to flourish. As a people, we 
     have a need to be part of a living unity with roots and a 
     lived experience, with a history and, therefore, a future. 
     Our lives as individuals and as a society are diminished to 
     the extent that we allow ourselves to be cut off or 
     disconnected from that which identifies and nurtures us. 
     Branches live and bear fruit only insofar as they are 
     attached to the vine.
       No one person; no part of our society, no people can become 
     isolated, cut off from its history, from its defining 
     experiences of life, from its highest aspirations, from the 
     lessons of faith and the inspiration of religion--from the 
     very ``soil'' that sustains life-and still expect to grow and 
     flourish. Faith convictions, moral values and defining 
     religious experiences of life sustain the vitality of the 
     whole society. We never stand alone, disconnected, uprooted, 
     at least not for long without withering.
       A profound part of the human experience is the search for 
     truth and connectedness, and the development of human wisdom 
     that includes the recognition of God, an appreciation of 
     religious experience in human history and life, and the 
     special truth that is divinely revealed religious truth.
       Science linked to religiously grounded ethics, art 
     expressive of spirituality, technology reflective of human 
     values, positive civil law rooted in the natural moral order 
     are all branches connected to the vine.
       A healthy and vital society respects the wisdom of God made 
     known to us through the gift of creation and the blessing of 
     revelation. We not only need God's guidance, but we are 
     created in such a way that we yearn for its light and 
     direction. Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Fides et Ratio 
     reminds us: ``. . . God has placed in the human heart a 
     desire to know the truth--in a word, to know himself--so 
     that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come 
     to the fullness of truth about themselves.'' (Intro., Fides 
     et Ratio)
       One reason we gather today in prayer for the outpouring of 
     the gifts of the Holy Spirit is our realization that it is 
     the wisdom of God that fills up what is lacking in our own 
     limited knowledge and understanding. Connected to the vine, 
     we access the richness of God's word directing our human 
     experience under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Cut off 
     from the vine, we have only ourselves.
       At times our society, like many contemporary cultures 
     heavily nurtured in a secular vision that draws its 
     inspiration elsewhere, can be tempted to think that we are 
     sufficient unto ourselves in grappling with and answering the 
     great human questions of every generation in every age: how 
     shall I live; what is the meaning and, therefore, the value 
     of life; how should we relate to each other; what are our 
     obligations to one another?
       The assertion by some that the secular voice alone should 
     speak to the ordering of society and its public policy, that 
     it alone can speak to the needs of the human condition, is 
     being increasingly challenged. Looking around, I see many 
     young men and women who, in such increasing numbers, are 
     looking for spiritual values, a sense of rootedness and hope 
     for the future. In spite of all the options and challenges 
     from the secular world competing for the allegiance of human 
     hearts, the quiet, soft and gentle voice of the Spirit has 
     not been stilled.
       Just as we are told in the first reading today that the 
     Spirit of God was shared with some of the elders so, too, 
     today we have a sense that that Spirit continues to be 
     shared. The resurgence of spiritual renewal in its many forms 
     bears testimony to the atavistic need to be connected to the 
     vine and rooted in the soil of our faith experience.

[[Page S10873]]

       As Jesus assures us in today's Gospel: ``Just as a branch 
     cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, 
     so neither can you unless you remain in me.'' The revelation 
     of the mystery of God-with-us is not incidental to that human 
     experience. It gives light and direction to the struggle 
     we call the human condition. Religious faith and faith-
     based values are not peripheral to the human enterprise. 
     Our history, the history of mankind, is told in part in 
     terms of our search for and response to the wisdom of God.
       Religious faith has long been a cornerstone of the American 
     experience. From the Mayflower Compact, which begins ``In the 
     name of God, Amen,'' to our Declaration of Independence, we 
     hear loud echoes of our faith in God. It finds expression in 
     our deepseated conviction that we have unalienable rights 
     from ``Nature and Nature's God.''
       Thomas Jefferson stated that the ideals and ideas that he 
     set forth in the Declaration of Independence were not 
     original with him, but were the common opinion of his day. In 
     a letter dated May 8, 1825, to Henry Lee, former governor of 
     Virginia, Jefferson writes that the Declaration of 
     Independence is ``intended to be an expression of the 
     American mind and to give to that expression the proper tone 
     and spirit.''
       George Washington, after whom this city is named, was not 
     the first, but perhaps was the most prominent, American 
     political figure to highlight the vital part religion must 
     play in the well-being of the nation. His often-quoted 
     Farewell Address reminds us that we cannot expect national 
     prosperity without morality, and morality cannot be sustained 
     without religious principles.
       Morality and ethical considerations cannot be divorced from 
     their religious antecedents. What we do and how we act, our 
     morals and ethics, follow on what we believe. The religious 
     convictions of a people sustain their moral decisions.
       What is religion's place in public life? As our Holy 
     Father, Pope Benedict XVI, tells us in his first encyclical 
     letter, ``Deus Caritas Est'' (God Is Love): ``[f]or her part, 
     the Church, as the social expression of Christian faith, has 
     a proper independence and is structured on the basis of her 
     faith as a community which the State must recognize. The two 
     spheres are distinct, yet always interrelated'' (DCE 28). 
     Politics, law and faith are mingled because believers are 
     also citizens. Church and state are home to the very same 
     people.
       The place of religion and religious conviction in public 
     life is precisely to sustain those values that make possible 
     a common good that is more than just temporary political 
     expediency. Without a value system rooted in morality and 
     ethical integrity, there is the very real danger that human 
     choices will be motivated solely by personal convenience and 
     gain.
       To speak out against racial discrimination, social 
     injustice or threats to the dignity of life is not to force 
     values upon society, but rather to call our society to its 
     own, long-accepted, moral principles and commitment to defend 
     basic human rights, which is the function of law.
       Not only did Thomas Jefferson subscribe to the proposition 
     that all are created equal, but his writings indicate that he 
     extended the logic of that statement. All people are obliged 
     to a code of morality that rests on the very human nature 
     which is the foundation for our human dignity and equality. 
     Jefferson recognizes no distinction between public and 
     private morality. In a letter dated August 28, 1789, to James 
     Madison, who later became the fourth president of our 
     country, Jefferson wrote: ``I know but one code of morality 
     for all, whether acting singly or collectively.''
       Perhaps nowhere is the relationship of values, religious 
     faith, public policy and the application of the law more 
     deeply rooted in its historic expression than here in our 
     nation's capital. Here is the place where our first 
     president, George Washington, and the first Catholic bishop 
     in our country, John Carroll, recognized so very early on in 
     the life of our country the need to respect, honor and 
     support the understanding that the goals of governance and 
     the expression of faith-based morality mingle and overlap. At 
     the same time, each was respectful of the prerogatives of the 
     other, and both were mindful that all the voices needed to be 
     heard.
       In the end, the goal of public policy, and its application 
     and interpretation, must be not what we can do but what we 
     ought to do; not what we have the ability to achieve, but 
     what in our hearts, in our conscience and in our souls we 
     know we must do.
       As believers, our hope for a better world is rooted in our 
     faith that God will help us make this happen. Faith is the 
     source of our perennial optimism and our social activism and 
     involvement. If we work and work hard enough, God will be 
     with us to bring about that world of peace, justice, 
     understanding, wisdom, kindness, respect and love that we 
     call His kingdom coming to be on earth.
       Our prayer today is that our American democratic society 
     will continue to be a flowering plant connected to the vine 
     with roots sunk deep into the rich soil of our national 
     identity, spiritual experience and faith convictions. May our 
     religious faith, as a foundational part of our national 
     experience, continue to nurture and sustain each branch of 
     our society so that by its very connectedness to the vine it 
     can blossom and flourish.
       Thank you.

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