TOLEDO--A White Mass to honor those who work in the health care profession begins at 4 p.m. Oct. 23 at Toledo Rosary Cathedral.

Bishop Leonard P. Blair presides at the Mass, which is traditionally celebrated on or near the Feast of St. Luke. It is called a White Mass because health care workers traditionally wear white coats and white is a symbol in the church of hope and comfort to the ill and hospitalized.

A reception for all health care professionals and students follows, with speaker Father Earl Fernandes, academic dean and assistant professor of moral theology at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary. He is to speak on “The Catholic Church and the Response to the Challenge of HIV/ AIDS Among the Married.”

Fr. Fernandes holds a doctorate in moral theology from the Alphonsian Academy of Rome, is chaplain for the Southwest Ohio Guild of the Catholic Medical Association and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Pregnancy Center East in Cincinnati. He is also a member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars and the National Catholic Bioethics Center.

The Mass and program are sponsored by the Northwest Ohio Guild of the Catholic Medical Association.

The reception is $15 per person and reservations are requested by Oct. 15 and may be made by e-mailing Timothy Anders at tutesanders@bex.net or calling Jeanne Weisenburger at 419-287-4939.