On October 10, 2025, King’s College held its Red Mass at the Chapel of Christ the King Chapel to invoke God’s blessing upon all members of the legal profession fields. The Red Mass has been an annual tradition at King’s College.
The tradition at King’s goes back many years and it’s a way for King’s Community to support and celebrate the local legal community and ask for God’s wisdom in all that they do. Many of the people who are part of that community are King’s alumni, friends, and board members.
This year presider of the mass was Reverend Thomas P. Looney, C.S.C. Lawyers have their special prayer, titled “A Lawyer’s Prayer.” This prayer always has a lawyer leading it, and all join as a recitation. The Hon. Judge Stefanie J. Salavantis led the lawyer’s prayer this year.
The red mass is a tradition in many places throughout the world. The mass is derived from the color of the vestments worn by the presider and concelebrants, the scarlet robes of attending justices (which were bright scarlets in the Middle Ages) and the scarlet gowns of law professors. This ritual traces its roots to Rome, Paris, and London.
The red mass tradition in the United States, was inaugurated in 1928 in St. Andrew’s Church in New York City. Supreme Court Justices, legislators, and judges now celebrate the National Red Mass each year at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington, D.C., to mark the opening of the October term of the U.S. Supreme Court.”
