This arrived in my e-mail this afternoon, from Deacon Marv Robertson, in the Diocese of Lansing. I asked him if he’d mind my sharing it on the blog, and he happily gave his permission:

I recall some weeks ago, the question posed on your website, is there such a thing as a “Catholic judge?”…

When the Great Guru was asked by a pilgrim if there was anything certain in life, he answered, “Yes . . . and no!”

For some years, I literally “worked both sides of the street.” On Monday mornings, I would don my deacon’s alb and stole, and preside at a Communion Service for our parish church. After breakfast with friends, I would drive to the Clinton County Courthouse, a “stone’s throw” across a side street from our parish church, and don my black judge’s robe. This dual role seemed to personify this Isaian verse: “For He has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and wrapped me in a mantle of justice.” ((11:10). For eight years, I was editor of the Michigan Probate Judges’ quarterly law journal. I would often insert a mini-column entitled “Judicial Spirituality.” During my tenure as president of that association, I scheduled and co-presided, as an optional event that was well attended, an ecumenical “Martin Luther King Day Memorial Service” at the Catholic student chapel next door to our conference’s hotel. When the governor appointed a friend to the Michigan Court Appeals, I was invited to give the invocation at his investiture ceremony. I was a “retreat master” for the Catholic Lawyers Guild, and I also gave a retreat for judges. I was a charter board member of the Catholic Lawyers Guild, and served a term as its president. In appropriate cases where adoption finalization ceremonies were performed in court, I would offer a blessing to the adoptive child and family from the USCCB Book of Blessings. When the clergy abuse scandal hit in 2002, I accompanied our bishop to six strategic parish sites in the diocese, and lectured on Michigan’s Child Protection Law. I served several years as Chaplain of the Thomas More Society at Cooley Law School. When I began teaching at the new Michigan State University Law School, I helped with the start-up of a Thomas More Society there.

I submit that my Catholic background and ministry made me a far better judge, enabling me to hone justice and mercy in accord with Gospel values, without compromising my secular oath of office. As an interesting historical footnote, the Olde English ancestor of the probate court (on which I served for 25 years) was titled “Court of the Archdeacon.” Perhaps this personal review may help answer the question: Is there such thing as a Catholic judge?