TO:      All law enforcement personnel in Utah

FROM: Robert Kirby, Historian, Utah Law Enforcement Memorial

DATE: January, 16, 2014

RE:       Blue Mass

 

Mike Julian (SLCSO, retired) contacted me last week asking for help with attendance at a Blue Mass. St. John’s (Catholic) Parish in Draper is having one at 0830, Sunday, February 16. Mike says last year’s Blue Mass was attended by less than a dozen officers. Pitiful.

 

For those unfamiliar with a Blue Mass, it is a Catholic rite to bless public safety personnel. At the end of the Mass, officers are asked to stand in order to be blessed by Monsignor Joseph Mayo.

 

If you are not Catholic, please understand that this has less to do with religion than it does with a display of professional solidarity. Catholic, Mormon, Jewish, Evangelical, agnostic…we should be there for each other.

 

Mike and I would like to see St. John’s packed with public safety personnel in uniform. In addition to supporting each other, it also shows the public that we stand together.

 

As a Mormon, I would like to point out that attending the Mass is a great way of skipping the three-hour ward block AND getting fed. Yeah, there’s a free breakfast at the end.

 

Let’s show support for our Catholic brothers and sisters of the badge. They’ve been laying down their lives as long as any of the rest of us.

 

Please show up in uniform if possible. All donations will go to the Utah Law Enforcement Memorial.

 

Here’s the information again:

0830, Sunday, February 16

St. John the Baptist Parish

300 E. 11800 South, Draper

 

Contact:

Mike Julian

Julian.mike0327@comcast.com

801-598-4910

 
Robert Kirby

rkirby@sltrib.com