By Jim Davis - Florida Catholic

PINECREST | The overlap of faith and law – “My Faith in Practice,” as the main speech is titled – will be explored in an upcoming seminar by the Miami Catholic Lawyers Guild.

MorningStar Renewal Center will be the locale for the seminar, to be held the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. A federal judge will give the keynote speech. The 60-70 expected participants will be seeking “more correlation between what we do in the legal profession and with our faith life,” according to William Castro, one of the planners.

“It’s important not to check in your faith when you arrive at the workplace,” Castro said. “Ethics rules are the bones; our faith is the flesh we put on them. It complements and augments the legal rules.”

Keynoting this year’s session will be U.S. Judge Rodolfo Ruiz II of the Southern District of Florida. His stated topic sounds stiffly formal – “My Faith in Practice: A Place for Spirituality in Our Profession” – but to him, it boils down to humility.

Humility empowers “active listening” and moderates individual temperaments, Ruiz said via e-mail. For a judge, humility aids sentencing “because it is the key to ensuring dignity and empathy.” It can even prompt a lawyer to “understand our colleagues on the other side of counsel’s table.”

Catholic lawyers have a special calling to humility, the judge said, recognizing that their gifts come from God’s Holy Spirit. He urged lawyers to remember to serve the community through pro bono work. He invoked the Bible verse James 2:26: “Faith without works is dead.”

A service ethic can support humility also by taking the focus off the lawyers themselves, Ruiz suggested.

“It is easy, in this day and age, to become consumed with the self; as lawyers, we are often accustomed to being the center of attention,” he said. “But as Catholics, we are not called to seek praise and fame but instead put God and others before ourselves.”

For Castro, biblical and secular law have a heavy overlap. He noted that court rules preclude an attorney using false testimony as evidence in a trial. That’s a close parallel with the Eighth Commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

Castro acknowledged some friction between secular and Catholic ethics, but he added that the issue is sharper for public servants, like Judge Ruiz, than for private lawyers like himself. He mentioned capital punishment, which the Church disapproves of but remains the law for 27 states including Florida.

“If you're a judge and you’ve taken an oath, as difficult as it may be, you have to follow the law,” Castro said. “But private lawyers can select what cases to take.”

He mentioned someone years ago who was charged with sexual abuse of a child. Castro refused to take the case, he said. “Yes, everyone is entitled to legal representation – but they're not entitled to my legal representation.”

The seminar is a cooperative project, both in input and output. Cosponsors are the Miami Catholic Lawyers Guild and the MorningStar Renewal Center. And proceeds of the event will be split between the center and Miami’s Gesu Church, where the lawyers hold their annual Red Mass.

The seminars began in 2006, with titles like “Balancing Work and Family,” “Winning at All Costs” and “Resurrecting Our Moral Conscience.” The nine-member Faith and Practice Committee, of which Castro is a member, chooses the topic after discussing “areas that are fertile for discernment,” he said.

Interestingly, the seminars draw not only Catholics but people of other faiths as well, including Jewish, Hindu and non-Catholic Christian lawyers, Castro said. 

Speakers have included some high-profile names, including former U.S. and state attorney general Janet Reno and former state supreme court justice Raoul Cantero.

Castro said the event counts for three continuing education credits for members of the Florida Bar, the organization of licensed lawyers in this state. 

IF YOU GO

• Event: Seminar, “My Faith in Practice: A Place for Spirituality in Our Profession”
• When: 12:30 to 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6, 2023
• Where: MorningStar Renewal Center, 7275 S.W. 12 St., Pinecrest
• What’s happening: Discussion on the interface between faith and law
• Keynote speaker: Judge Rodolfo Ruiz II, U.S. judge for Southern District of Florida
• Cost: $100 for private practice attorneys, $75 for judges and government attorneys. Sponsorship levels from $250 to $1,000. Proceeds will be split between MorningStar and Gesu Church, Miami
• Registration: morningstarrenewal.org/myfaithinpractice
• Questions: Contact Jessi Menendez, 305-238-4367, ext. 3, [email protected].

Correction: This story originally cited the Ninth Commandment as the one against bearing false witness. It is, in fact, the Eighth Commandment.