CAMDEN – (October 28, 2005) – Bishop Joseph A. Galante, D.D., J.C.D., will celebrate the 10th Red Mass for members of legal professions and their families:
The Honorable Samuel G. DeSimone, A.J.S.C. (retired) will receive the 2005 Saint Thomas More Society Award for Distinguished Judicial Service. Judge DeSimone served as Gloucester County Superior Court judge from 1975 to 2000. As a judge, he served in every division of the Superior Court, and last served as Assignment Judge for Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties. He is currently counselor at the firm of John G. DeSimone, LLC, Woodbury.
Judge DeSimone is a member of St. Michael Church, Gibbstown. Renee M. Bumb, Esq., and Kevin T. Smith, Esq., will be given the Saint Thomas More Society Award for Distinguished Advocacy. Bumb has been an Assistant United States Attorney for more than ten years. Currently, Ms. Bumb is the Attorney-in-Charge of the Camden Office of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. Smith is an Assistant United States Attorney in the Camden office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey.
He has served with the U.S. Department of Justice for nearly 15 years. Currently, he is a prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney General’s Office working with the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force. Homilist will be The Reverend John D. Silcox, Jr., M.Div., J.D. Father Silcox received his Juris Doctor at Villanova University Law School in 1963. He left private practice in Philadelphia and entered St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in 1991. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1995. The Red Mass is traditionally offered to “grant light and inspiration” to the lawyer in pleading, and to the judge during the coming term of court.
The Red Mass originated in France and Italy in the 13th century and began in England in the 14th century. It was first celebrated in the United States in 1928. The “Red Mass” derives its name from the red vestments that were worn by the priest at these Masses, as well as the deep red robes of the judges of the High Court who attended Mass as a body in London.