MERRILLVILLE – Judges, lawyers and financial advisers gathered for the annual Red Mass at Our Lady of Consolation on Oct. 3 to seek guidance as they begin another year of serving their professions with “the divine gifts of wisdom, justice and compassion,” noted Bishop Robert J. McClory, celebrant.
Hosted by the Catholic Foundation for Northwest Indiana and the Diocese of Gary, Bishop McClory welcomed dozens of guests to the liturgy and continuing education breakfast that focused on estate tax law and charitable giving.
In his homily, the bishop focused on the story of Job, referenced in the day’s first scripture reading, and a man scheduled to be ordained a deacon last summer who found himself in the hospital instead.
“He is battling cancer, in and out of consciousness, and is on bed rest” as recuperates, said Bishop McClory, “and I asked him what God has shown him, how do you see God now?”
“He replied, ‘That’s really easy. God has given me everything, and if he wants to take something back now, that’s alright. I still have my faith in God.’”
Noting that it took the whole Book of Job in the Bible to get to that conclusion, the bishop asked his congregation to “reflect a little more on this.”
When calamity after calamity befell Job, his friends suggested to him, “Y must have done some terrible things to deserve this,” but when they learned he was not to blame, they blamed an unjust God.
Ultimately, Job breaks free of his desperate circumstances and renews his allegiance to the Lord. “‘Your love is more vast than I can imagine, but I will submit myself to you,’ Job tells God,” said the bishop. “His encounter with God has changed his heart and transformed him.
“God is all loving,” he added, which is how the deacon candidate “found himself so grateful for the life he had been given.”
Going on to the New Testament, the faithful learn that Jesus Christ took on all the suffering of mankind and allowed himself to be put to death. “But because he rose from the dead, we have a new horizon,” said Bishop McClory. “That makes us humble and that is a good thing, because it brings about purification.
“My prayer for you … is that you open your hearts to transform the love of God in your suffering. There is a horizon that leads to a beautiful destiny,” continued the bishop.
“While you see fragments of pain in the world, the light of God awaits,” pledged the bishop. “Let us, with Job, place our suffering in God’s hands … hope and resurrection await.”
At the breakfast, Judy Holicky, diocesan coordinator of Stewardship and Development, announced the establishment of the foundation’s 50th endowment, the new Eucharistic Adoration Endowment, aimed at funding programs and materials that promote adoration.
The foundation’s total endowment currently tops $18 million, Holicky added, including the Mercy Fund that was established to award grants for corporal and spiritual works of mercy within Northwest Indiana and has grown from $7,000 in 2016 to more than $250,000.
Holicky suggested her audience “can ask your clients to consider their legacy” while planning their estate and consider contributing to or establishing an endowment fund with the Catholic Foundation.
Attendees were also encouraged to contribute to the charity highlighted for the 2024 Red Mass, the diocesan Lay Ecclesial Ministry program that trains lay people for service to the Catholic Church and serves as a springboard for the diaconate.
“We are really working to raise up leaders,” said Father Declan McNicholas, named LEM director earlier this year, who announced that the newly formed cohort boasts 80 participants, “more than three times what we’ve ever had before.” By offering both English- and Spanish-language courses, he noted, “We have 40 English and 40 Spanish students, which is significant because statistics show that about 45% of people in our diocese attend Spanish-language Masses each week.”
The continuing education seminar, “Looming Changes in the Estate Tax Law and How Charitable Giving Can Be a Valuable Component of Your Estate/Tax Plan,” was presented by Joseph A. Zariengo, attorney, and Terry McMahon, CPA. They explained that the current federal lifetime gift and estate tax exemption is scheduled to decrease significantly at the end of 2025, and investors should plan ahead.
“I attended the Red Mass for the first time last year,” said Charlie Schimpf, director of finance and operations at St. Thomas More in Munster, “and I found it very inspiring by bringing faith into the lives of judges and the legal and financial professions that you see every day in their work.
“I was so impressed that I invited my wife, Vickie, to come with me this year,” Schimpf added. “Today’s homily on the deacon who has his faith despite his cancer diagnosis hit close to home for us since someone we know was just diagnosed with lung cancer yesterday.”
Martha Sapp, a CPA from Merrillville and parishioner at Our Lady of Consolation, said she attends the Red Mass almost every year, finding that “it helps you focus on what’s important, serving in an ethical way. (It gives) people who work in legal and financial and accounting to get together to celebrate Mass and share a seminar on ethical issues.”
Steeped in tradition, the Red Mass goes back to 1245 in Paris, France and 1301 in Westminster, England, when it began as a way to invoke the wisdom of the Holy Spirit upon judges, justices and members of the legal profession at the beginning of each new judicial year, It took its name after the color of the vestments worn for a Mass of the Holy Spirit.
Caption: Active and retired Lake County judges exchange the Sign of Peace during the annual Red Mass at Our Lady of Consolation in Merrillville on Oct. 3. Legal professionals including attorneys and judges and financial experts including bankers gathered at the liturgy presided over by Bishop Robert J. McClory, which continues the Catholic tradition originating in the Middle Ages of invoking the guidance of the Holy Spirit for decision-makers. (Anthony D. Alonzo photo)