Special Masses set for first responders, legal professionals

Special Masses for first responders and for legal professionals are coming up in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux.
The annual Blue Mass for police, firefighters, emergency responders and members of the military, will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Joseph Co-Cathedral, Thibodaux.
Sept. 29 is the feast of the archangels, one of whom, St. Michael, is the patron saint of community protectors. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic this year, the Mass will be open only to members of the protection agencies and family members of the deceased of those agencies who will be memorialized.
Those who participate will be expected to comply with the guidelines related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The annual Red Mass, for legal professionals and their staffs will be celebrated at noon Oct. 7 at St. Joseph Co-Cathedral, Thibodaux.
Bishop Shelton Fabre will be the presider. and the homilist will be Thomas J. Rodi, archbishop of Mobile, Alabama.
Before his seminary studies, Rodi earned a Juris Doctorate from Tulane University in 1974 and was admitted to the Louisiana State Bar Association in the same year.
He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 1978, bishop of Bilox in 2001 and the fourth archbishop of Mobile in 2008.
He also earned a Licentiate in Canon Law from the Catholic University of America and a Master of Divinity degree from Notre Dame Seminary.
The Mass is open to legal professionals, their staffs, their families and to the public. Those who participate will be expected to comply with the guidelines related to the COVID-19 pandemic.