St. Jude Regional Catholic School in Rockville, Maryland hosted its first Law Enforcement Mass at the Shrine of St. Jude on Sept. 29 for those who work in public service. Students in kindergarten to eighth grade were in attendance. Father Raymond Fecteau, who serves as chaplain to the Montgomery County and Maryland State Police and to the United States Secret Service, celebrated the Mass. 

In his homily, Father Fecteau discussed the sacrifices law enforcement officials, and their families, make. The first reading, which was from the Book of Daniel, was about angels that fulfill God’s will. “Angels are always doing God’s will and God’s work, and we need to know that even when we don’t see them, the police are there,” he said. 

“While you’re at Thanksgiving dinner, they’re working, while you’re at Christmas, they’re working, while you’re sleeping, they’re working,” Father Fecteau said. “It also means their families are serving, we forget that.”

The second reading was from the Book of Revelation when St. Michael, the patron saint of police officers, went to battle with Satan. “I got close to police, I got to know the good and bad of them, there are more good than bad though,” Father Fecteau said. “Being a police chaplain, I get to see what no one else sees.”

Father Fecteau said this was an emotional time for him, as this was the church where he celebrated his first Mass after being ordained 50 years ago. 

“In 1994, a police officer named James Walch died in the line of duty in an accident, he slid on ice,” Father Fecteau said. “Because he was Catholic, I got permission to have his funeral here.” 

Father Fecteau said he honored Walch by remembering him during the Eucharistic prayer. In his position as a volunteer with the department, Father Fecteau is “on call.” The first five years he worked with the department, he often went on ride alongs with officers.

“I would ride whole shifts, I would ride holidays, so I got a sense of what it was like for them,” Father Fecteau said. 

The Gospel reading from the Book of John was about Jesus calling Nathaniel to his vocation as a disciple. 

“To be a first responder is no less a sacred calling, just like we need priests, we need first responders, so I looked at the children and say, ‘Please consider becoming a first responder, your Church needs you and your community needs you,’” Father Fecteau said. 

Father Fecteau noted that it was important that students were present at the Mass, not just to observe the officials in attendance, but to show law enforcement officials that there are students praying for them.

“They’ll pray for them, [it’s important] I think for the police to know that. The hardest thing for police is to see a child injured or killed, of all the things they deal with, that’s the hardest and so I think for police who saw them today, they had to love that,” Father Fecteau said.

Montgomery County Department of Police Assistant Chief of the Management Services Bureau Darren Francke attended the Mass.

“For me, just seeing all the children, it was very heartwarming to see they were very attentive and looking around, and looking at us and we’re looking to them as the future,” Francke said. 

Silver Spring Deputy Commander David Reed described how being Catholic impacts his job.

“When officers have to deal with the evil that we have to deal with sometimes – with murder, rape, other things – it can weigh heavily on your heart,” Reed said. “I often say officers are like dump trucks, we have to deal with things all day long and sometimes they don’t know how to get rid of it.”

“That’s why mental health is so important, that’s why I think faith is so important, sometimes I have conversations with my pastor asking, ‘why?’”, Reed said, adding that “you get upset if a colleague dies, if a colleague takes his own life,” Reed said.

Following the Mass, law enforcement officials and their families were invited for doughnuts and coffee.