By
Lou Baldwin
Special to The CS&T
What is the relationship between the words ‘Christian’ and
‘cretin?’ Who should we emulate, Thomas Jefferson or Thomas
More? Those questions were explored by U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice
Antonin Scalia before a dinner of the St. Thomas More Society of Philadelphia
at the Union League on Oct. 15.
But first things first.
Cardinal Justin Rigali was the celebrant and Justice Scalia was a distinguished
guest at Philadelphia’s 56th annual Red Mass, held prior to the
dinner, at the Cathedral Basilica of SS Peter and Paul. The Mass is held
each year for members of the legal profession, near what was traditionally
the start of the fall court sessions.
“Your presence attests to a profound recognition in your professional
lives of the primacy of God and the need for prayers,” the Cardinal
told the jurists and lawyers at the well-attended Mass.
In his homily, Cardinal Rigali spoke of the liberties enshrined in our
Declaration of Independence — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
— and he focused on specific ways those rights are abridged.
“It is certainly a sad irony that freedom, itself — under
the guise of ‘freedom of choice’— is often invoked against
the most vulnerable in our society to deny them their basic freedom to
live,” he said.
“This erroneous rationalization is also evident in the debate surrounding
embryonic stem cell research,” he said. “But what scientific
advantage could possibly justify the termination of innocent human life?”
Concelebrants of the Mass with Cardinal Rigali included Auxiliary Bishop
Daniel E. Thomas and a number of priests, including civil lawyers Msgr.
Michael J. Fitzpatrick, Capuchin Franciscan Father Thomas R. Betz and
Father Gerard C. Mesure, chaplain for the Saint Thomas More Society, an
organization of lawyers and jurists and the sponsor of the Mass.
Among the distinguished jurists in the procession before Mass were Pennsylvania
Supreme Court Justices Cynthia Baldwin, James J. Fitzgerald and Ronald
Castile, who will become chief justice in January. Music for the liturgy
was provided by the choir of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish.
Later, at the Union League, Justice Scalia received the St. Thomas More
Society’s annual Thomas More Award.
In remarks that followed, he focused on personal faith and public life.
In choosing that topic, Justice Scalia noted that the word ‘cretin,’
which comes from the French word signifying a deformed idiot, has at its
root the word for Christian — because all people, no matter what
their affliction should be regarded as Christians.
In contemporary society, he said, those words take on a different context,
as sophisticates view traditional Christians, including traditional Catholics,
as foolish.
“They look upon as positively peasant-like things [such as] praying
the rosary, kneeling in adoration before the Eucharist, going on pilgrimages
to Lourdes and Medjugorje and, most of all, following indiscriminately
rather than in smorgasbord fashion, the teachings of the Pope,”
Justice Scalia said. [The Catholic Church has not approved Medjugorje
as a Marian apparition site.]
Sophisticated people regard those who do those things as poorly educated
and uncultured, he said.
Justice Scalia used the example of Jefferson, our third president, who
in 1804 took it upon himself to edit the Gospels. With razor in hand,
he cut out anything to do with the miraculous — including the annunciation,
the virgin birth, the resurrection and all of the miracles of Jesus —
and later, the apostles.
Jefferson considered those things examples of vulgar ignorance, superstition
and fabrication — but acknowledged they were intermixed with some
fine ideas of the Supreme Being that were worth keeping, Justice Scalia
said.
It did not matter to Jefferson that the writers of the Gospels were eyewitnesses
to the ministry of Christ, men who went to their death to defend what
they saw and heard, the justice added.
He contrasted Jefferson, the sophisticate, to Thomas More — who
was equally learned but, like the early martyrs, went to his death rather
than deny his beliefs.
“The reason he died was, to almost every one of his time, a silly
one,” Justice Scalia said. “Thomas More went to his death
to support the proposition that only the pope in Rome could bind or loose
a marriage. In what he did, More was not supported by intelligent society,
by his friends, or by his own wife.
“I find it hard to understand the reasoning of those wise people
who revere Thomas More as a saint rather than a world class fool for dying
to support Pope Clement II concerning King Henry’s divorce from
Catherine of Aragon — but who, themselves, ignore and positively
oppose the teaching of Pope Benedict on much more traditional and less
politically-charged issues,” Justice Scalia told his audience of
lawyers, and judges. “Go figure.”
In short remarks, St. Thomas More Society president Edward C. Mintzer
said, “We reside in a battle zone between the premises of good and
evil — between objective moral order and misinformed, selfish, moral
relativism. The St. Thomas More Society intends to speak out in direct
statements of sound legal reasoning in a candid and clear manner when
and if we perceive baseless, groundless or false premises espoused in
the public forum.”
Mark A. Sargent, the dean of the Villanova Law School and, himself, a
former Thomas More award recipient, said he believes the Catholic organization
is in a the process of regeneration. “I see a new generation coming
that will give the organization new vitality,” he said.
The following day, Oct. 16, Justice Scalia was the keynote speaker at
the law school’s John F. Scarpa Conference on Law, Politics and
Culture.