Wednesday Update, October 2, 2019

Vol. 2, No. 36 

Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019 

Bishop Weisenburger presents an award to retired Tucson Police Capt. Paul Sayre, here with his wife Rene.  Photos by Mike Brown  

Annual Red Mass 

I presided over the Seventh Annual Red and Blue Mass, recognizing those working in the legal community and law enforcement. The Mass was celebrated Oct. 1 at St. Augustine Cathedral, and it was a pleasure to thank those in the Cathedral for playing their roles to “help establish order in society.” 

Traditionally, Red Masses are offered for the legal community during the first week of October. In Tucson, the tradition included police and other members of law enforcement in 2013. The event is sponsored by the St. Thomas More Society of Southern Arizona. The society presents three awards near the end of Mass, one each honoring members in the legal profession and law enforcement, and the Judge John Roll Scholarship, to an outstanding law student. 

The late attorney Michael W. Murray and retired Tucson Police Capt. Paul Sayre each were honored. 

Murray died last Feb. 1 at age 83, after spending more than 50 years as a probate lawyer in Tucson and Green Valley. He was a parishioner at Sacred Heart Church and provided pro bono service to parishes and the Diocese. Judge Charles Harrington accepted the award on behalf of the family. 

Sayre worked in law enforcement more than 27 years and introduced a program called a Mental Health Support Team to Tucson Police Department. MHST provided a model that allowed law enforcement to use different protocols to address suspects with mental illness than those used to address suspects without mental illness. A member of Corpus Christi Parish, he also teaches religion to students in grades 5-8 at St. Cyril Catholic School in Tucson. 

Law student Jefferson Abbey receives his award from Bishop, along with members of the Roll Family. 

Law student Jefferson Abbey received the Judge Roll Scholarship. 

Visit to St. John the Evangelist School 

Another in my trips to our diocesan schools. This week, I celebrated Mass with the faculty and students at St. John’s, a school offering kindergarten through eighth grade academics. Principal Minh Solorzano and the staff have about 400 students enrolled this year. 

Happy St. Francis celebration I will be joining Catholics at the Tohono O’odham village of Anegam for their annual Festival of St. Francis. The area is filled with colorful decorations, good food and lots of people surrounding the tiny St. Clair chapel. I will celebrate Mass and meet with members of this community, located within the Tohono O’odham nation. Our Franciscan Fathers also will be on hand, I am sure. 

Happy Anniversary! To the St. Pius X parish community, that will celebrate the parish’s 50th year on Saturday. I will celebrate Mass with the community and join them for a small reception. St. Pius is on the east side of Tucson, off east Tanque Verde Road. 

The parish community was started in October 1969, and initially celebrated early Sunday Mass in the chapel of the Immaculate Heart Novitiate, 4100 N. Sabino Canyon Road, at 7:30 a.m. Mass moved to the auditorium at Magee Middle School for the 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Masses. These first Masses for St. Pius were celebrated by the parish’s first pastor, Father Terrence Sheridan. 

The parish was named for a man known as the first modern saint. Pius served as pope from 1903 to early 1914, and we have him to thank for instituting the practice of children receiving Holy Communion at the age of reason, or about seven years old. Pius was canonized a saint in the early 1950s. 

Above St. Pius X worshippers used either the chapel at the Immaculate Heart Novitiate for Mass or, as above, the auditorium of Magee Middle School in Tucson. At left, the newly completed St. Pius X Parish.