Blue Mass honors diocese’s first responders

“Thank you for honoring us by your presence at this Mass and for giving us this simple opportunity to thank you for your courage, your dedication, and your support to make our communities safe,” Bishop Carl A. Kemme told first responders who attended the Diocese of Wichita’s 2026 Blue Mass on Sunday, Sept. 13, in Wichita’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. 

The bishop noted that the diocese always scheduled its Blue Mass in proximity to Sept. 11, “that fateful and tragic day when our nation underwent a terrorist attack of unprecedented proportions – a day when thousands of people lost their lives.”

Tragic as that day was, Bishop Kemme noted, it also demonstrated first responders’ courage and service. “We saw, time and again, video footage of firemen, police, EMTs, and so many others associated with them –  (courageous acts) to save as many lives as possible, all while putting their own lives in mortal danger. 

“Many first responders died that day in the line of duty, putting their own safety on hold in order to attend to the ones who were waiting for them to come and rescue them,” he continued. “They thought of others before themselves. They thought of others before their own families.”

That day’s sacrifice was great, and the loss enormous, Bishop Kemme described. “We can never forget 9/11, for as the Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana once said, ‘Those who fail to remember the past are condemned to repeat it,’” he said. “We can never forget the impact of those heroic men and women, our first responders.”