LAKE CHARLES — Bishop Glen John Provost was the celebrant for the annual Red Mass on Friday, September 13, 2024, in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The Mass coincided with the Memorial of Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church.
His Excellency was joined by the Very Rev. Edward Richard, M.S., V.F., who served as homilist and is Chaplain to the St. Thomas More Society, Judge Henry Yelverton Society. Also assisting were Deacon Patrick LaPoint and the Very Rev. Joseph Caraway as Master of Ceremonies.
The Red Mass is celebrated at the opening of the judicial year and requests guidance from the Holy Spirit for all who seek justice. It offers those in the legal profession the opportunity to reflect on their God-given power and responsibility of justice. The liturgy focuses on wisdom, understanding, counsel and fortitude for those in attendance.
The Mass is so named because of the color of the vestments worn by the bishop and priests, donned in symbolism of the tongues of fire that descended on the Apostles. The celebration of the Red Mass goes back many centuries with the first recorded Mass in the Cathedral of Paris in 1245. This tradition was introduced into the United States in 1928 in the Church of St. Andrew in located in New York City. The Mass was presided over by His Eminence Patrick Cardinal Haves, who strongly encouraged the supported the legal community to seek justice in the carrying out of their duties.
In Louisiana, the first Red Mass was offered in the St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans on October 5, 1953. Locally, the annual Mass is open to judges, attorneys, and government officials from the five civil parishes of the Diocese — Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Camer-on, and Jefferson Davis. It is sponsored by the Diocese of Lake Charles and the Saint Thomas More Society, Judge Henry Yelverton Chapter.
A free symposium on legal issues affecting religion was offered in the Cathedral’s Ave Maria Hall on the evening prior to the Mass. John Randall Trahan, the Louis B. Porterie Professor of Law and Saul Litvinoff Distinguished Professor of Law at LSU Paul M. Hebert Center was presenter at the symposium.
