October 8 - Approach dialogue with respect, bishop tells US leaders

U.S. Supreme Court justices and government officials at an annual Mass invoking the Holy Spirit's aid were reminded of the important role of respectful dialogue in the search for truth and unity.

“We can and should debate, refine positions, truly listen to each other and seek consensus on essentials and respect details that may well be different,” Bishop Kevin J. Farrell of Dallas preached at the 61st annual Red Mass in Washington, D.C. “If dialogue means anything, it means not only that we take another seriously but it means that we revere the other as a fellow human being with gifts and talents from God.”

“Among the things that we celebrate at this Mass today is the countercultural reality of God’s very Spirit hovering over us … and, as the Holy Spirit did at that first Pentecost, he now bestows wisdom, clarity, insight and, yes, unity.”

Unity is separate from uniformity, he clarified, because people can be united despite their differences.

“I deliberately said unity because the Holy Spirit is the source of unity on all that matters and the source of variety in and among the differences we have that make us who we are.”