Remembering The Saint of 9/11: Father Mychal Judge
*Father Mychal Judge*
On 9/11/01, rescue workers remove the body of Father Judge, a parish priest
from one of New York's fire halls. Father Judge was administering last rites
to a firefighter who was killed by one of the many bodies that fell to the
ground after people leapt from the tower to their deaths, when he too was
struck and killed.
Father Mychal Judge There is a word that upsets Cardinal Edward Egan
more than "terrorist" and that is the word "gay."
After the funeral service for Father Mychal Judge, the fire chaplain who
perished ministering to a dying fireman at the World Trade Center, I tried
to ask Egan, "Given Father Mychal's many contributions to the gay community
and all you've just heard about how loving and loved he was, does it make
you want to rethink your condemnation of homosexuality?" When Egan heard the
word "gay," he didn't wait for the question. "Oh, COME ON!," he thundered as
he abruptly turned away. Purple with rage, he literally ran to his car.
Egan's response explains Mychal Judge's decision not to be a more outspoken
gay activist-- something that he debated with me, host of a gay news show on
TV that he said he enjoyed, and others over the years. Cardinals John
O'Connor or Egan would certainly have put an end to his ability to function
as a priest in this Archdiocese, a role that allowed him to roam the city in
his brown Franciscan habit giving solace and strength to countless New
Yorkers. It might also have meant the loss of his chaplaincy serving his
beloved fire fighters, even though he enjoyed the support of the Fire
Commissioner, Mayor, and virtually all the rank and file.
At his wake and funeral, Mychal Judge, 68, was mourned and celebrated by his
two sisters, brother Franciscans, elderly nuns who were his grade school
teachers, powerful friends, diverse parishioners, the homeless and others he
served, and scores of fire fighters, some covered with dust from the
catastrophe downtown. But evidence of Judge's involvement with the gay
community-- and his wary relationship with the church hierarchy-- was hiding
in plain sight.
At the wake, Mayor Giuliani himself said, "Father Mychal is now up in heaven
with Cardinal O'Connor-- and O'Connor is letting him say mass," referring to
the rivalry these two priests had, especially over funerals of fallen fire
fighters. It was a grim day in a devastating week, but the mourners roared
with knowing laughter.
Eulogizing him at the funeral, Father Michael Duffy broke up the crowd and
humanized his friend by noting that when Judge got the word to dash downtown
to the stricken Trade Center, "he did take time to comb and spray his hair!"
Public Advocate Mark Green spoke of how he served people of "every
orientation."
The night before, his 23 years in Alcoholics Anonymous were invoked, but not
that Judge went mostly to gay AA meetings. His gay brothers from the program
were all over the church.
Present in the pews were Judge's close friends, gay couple Brendan Fay and
Tom Moulton. Judge had openly supported (and surreptitiously funded) Fay's
Queens St. Patrick's Parade that welcomed gay groups, the only Catholic
priest to do so. (The next one, on March 3, is dedicated to Judge's memory.)
And when the Emerald Society of the Fire Department honored Father Mychal,
he had Brendan and Tom as his guests and the couple danced together at the
banquet. He was always building bridges, especially between the conservative
and progressive worlds he was equally at home in.
Hillary Clinton inelegantly spoke of the "AIDS victims" Judge helped. She
did not note how that ministry came about. When Cardinal O'Connor expelled
Dignity, the gay Catholic organization, from St. Francis Xavier Church in
the mid-1980s, Judge provided a home for the group's AIDS ministry, led by
the Rev. Bernard Lynch, an outspoken gay priest. Judge later made that
outreach St. Francis of Assisi's own. Several gay men came at the funeral
told me how Judge had buried their partners and gotten them through their
grief.
In 1988, Lynch was falsely accused of molesting a teen-age student at a
Bronx school he once served. Lynch said that without being asked, Judge
"flew to Ireland to meet with my provincial superior to tell him that the
charges were politically motivated because I had stood up against the
Cardinal in 1986 on the gay rights bill." This, Lynch said, convinced Father
Con Murphy, his superior, to hire high-powered lawyer Michael Kennedy to
defend Lynch. Judge made a side trip to a small Irish town to reassure
Lynch's father about his son. Lynch returned to the Bronx and the flimsy
case evaporated in court, with Judge Burton Roberts angrily declaring the
priest not just "not guilty," but innocent of all charges.
The Archdiocese denies any involvement in bringing the charges, but they
never answered letters from Kennedy seeking their files on Lynch nor pleas
from religious leaders asking the Cardinal to help him. While O'Connor did
speak out for his friend the Rev. Bruce Ritter when he was charged
(accurately) with abusing boys at Covenant House, he was silent while Lynch
twisted in the wind. Now the Archdiocese can know that their church's hero,
Mychal Judge, helped undermine the case meant to destroy Lynch.
Judge kept a high profile, from comforting the kin of those who died on
Flight 800 and meeting with Presidents to his poignant martyrdom on Bloody
Tuesday. But in other ways, he was like the underground priests in Ireland,
homeland of his parents, who defied the 18th century anti-Catholic Penal
Laws, saying mass on the sly and always on the run. Working on gay issues,
however, he was hiding from his own Cardinal Archbishop, who proclaimed him
a saint at his funeral and refused to hear that Judge was the kind of person
his church has condemned as "intrinsically disordered."
For Mychal (nee Emmet) Judge, an Irish American kid from Brooklyn, gayness
was one of his many gifts, but it was the one that gave him his most
personal experience of being an outsider, blessing him with the empathy that
gave him such a tremendous ability to connect to and heal so many broken
people.
More:
http://www.whitecranejournal.com/wc_Father_Mychal_Judge.htm
*Father Mychal F. Judge, The Saint of 9/11*
Father Mychal F. Judge, OFM was a busy Franciscan priest who dedicated his
life to serving God's people. He is known for his work with the homeless,
recovering addicts, AIDS patients, and his work as chaplain to the New York
City Fire Department.
On September 11, 2001, Father Mychal rushed from the friary at Saint Francis
of Assisi Church to the scene of the World Trade Center attacks.
After administering last rites to a firefighter, Father Mychal was hit by
debris and killed. He became the first officially recorded fatality
following the attack.
During his life, Father Mychal spent much of his time ministering to the
homeless on the Breadline at St. Francis of Assisi Church in New York City.
This is one of the many places where he found God - in the hurting, the
broken, the suffering, and the poor.
His dedication to homeless men, women and children has become a calling to
us that manifests itself as Mychal's Message.
*Father Mychal F. Judge, OFM Biography
*Reprinted with permission of the Holy Name Province.
Father Mychal F. Judge, OFM, chaplain to the New York City Fire Department,
died Tuesday, September 11, 2001 in a hail of falling debris near the World
Trade Center. He became the first officially recorded fatality following
the attack. Father Mychal was 68.
Born in Brooklyn, NY on May 11, 1933, Robert Emmett Judge was the son of two
Irish immigrants from County Leitrim. As a young boy, he watched his father
die after a long illness. To help his mother and two sisters make ends
meet, he shined shoes in Manhattan, ran errands and did odd jobs, before
being called to his Franciscan vocation at age 16. He then entered St.
Joseph's Seraphic Seminary, Callicoon, NY, and graduated in 1954 after
completing the first two years of college.
He was received into the Franciscan Order on August 12, 1954 and the
following year, on August 13, professed his first vows of poverty, chastity
and obedience as stated in the Rule of Life of St. Francis of Assisi. He
professed final vows on August 20, 1958.
He was ordained to the priesthood on February 25, 1961 at the Franciscan
Monastery – Mt. St. Sepulchre, Washington, DC. He spent a year of pastoral
formation at St. Anthony Shrine, Boston, Mass., before his first assignment
1962-66 as an assistant at St. Joseph's Church, East Rutherford, NJ. He
also served as an assistant at Sacred Heart Church, Rochelle Park, NJ from
1967-69. In 1969 he came to St. Francis of Assisi Church, New York City, as
local moderator for the Secular Franciscan fraternities.
In 1970, he returned to St. Joseph's Church, East Rutherford, NJ, as
coordinator of the parochial team ministry of Franciscan friars. After six
years, he was appointed in 1976 as assistant to the president at Siena
College in Loudonville, NY, serving until 1979. He then became pastor of
St. Joseph's Church in West Milford, NJ. In 1985 he undertook a one-year
theological sabbatical at the Franciscan house of studies in Canterbury,
England.
Upon returning in the summer of 1986, he was appointed an associate pastor
of St. Francis of Assisi Church, New York City. At the friary there,
finding many "Michaels" on the staff, he decided to change the spelling of
his name to Mychal. Only a few days after arriving at St. Francis, he
responded to a call to celebrate Mass in the hospital room of New York
police officer Steven McDonald, who had been critically wounded during an
investigation of a youth in Central Park. Father Mychal and the McDonald
family soon became devoted friends. Among their good-will travels, Father
Mychal accompanied Detective McDonald on visits to Northern Ireland in 1998,
1999 and 2000 to encourage reconciliation.
In 1992, upon the death of Fr. Julian Deeken, OFM, a Franciscan friar who
had served as one of the Catholic chaplains for the New York Fire
Department, Father Mychal accepted an invitation to serve temporarily in his
place. Fr. Mychal was named chaplain officially in 1994 to serve the
boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island.
When TWA Flight 800 exploded shortly after takeoff from New York in July
1996 and fell into the Atlantic off Long Island, Father Mychal helped
counsel the families and friends of the victims every day for three weeks
and worked to arrange a permanent memorial at the site. He had since
returned every summer to offer a memorial service and comfort the families.
Over the years, Father Mychal won the hearts of the firefighters and their
families by his charismatic Irish personality and warm Franciscan outreach
to them in all their needs – baptisms, weddings, funerals, hospital visits –
wherever and whenever he was sought. He was also active in a diverse
ministry to various groups throughout the Metropolitan area.
More than 2,800 people attended the Mass of Christian Burial for Father
Mychal on Saturday, September 15 at St. Francis of Assisi Church in
Manhattan. Father Mychal was buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Totowa,
NJ. He is survived by two sisters, Erin McTernan and Dympna Jessich.
More:
http://www.mychalsmessage.org/aboutfrm/aboutfrm.htm
Children's Book:
*He Said Yes*
The Story of Father Mychal Judge
*written by Kelly Ann Lynch
illustrated by M. Scott Oatman*
A true story about the remarkable life and untimely death of Father Mychal
Judge, *He Said Yes *tells how an ordinary boy from Brooklyn became an
extraordinary Franciscan priest and the beloved New York City Fire
Department chaplain who gave his life for his friends on September 11, 2001.
More:
http://www.mychalsmessage.org/aboutmm/share/book.htm
The story of a gay priest killed on 9/11
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
By LARRY McSHANE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kelly Ann Lynch, like so many others in Father Mychal Judge's vast
congregation without walls, was devastated by word of the fire chaplain's
death in the shadows of the World Trade Center.
"Those first few weeks, it was hard to see anything good," said the
Pennsylvania mother of four. "It just felt so dark and so sad and so empty."
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Time passed, until the darkness gave way to a bright idea. Lynch -- whose
father once served as an altar boy for Judge -- became consumed with turning
the priest's life into a children's book, keeping his message of love alive
for future generations.
"He Said Yes: The Story of Father Mychal Judge," a biography timed to arrive
with the sixth anniversary of 9/11, is an illustrated 32-page walk in the
Franciscan priest's sandals. M. Scott Oatman did the artwork.
"He left behind a legacy for all of us," Lynch said recently over breakfast
at a Secaucus hotel, a short hop from the East Rutherford parish where her
family first met Judge. "I took the most important parts of his story and
tried to simplify it. His story was meant to be shared."
The biography starts with Judge's birth in Brooklyn, where he had a job
shining shoes to help his widowed mother make ends meet. It follows him into
the seminary, through his ordination, to parishes in Massachusetts, New
Jersey (East Rutherford, Rochelle Park and West Milford) and finally
Manhattan.
First official victim
Lynch, in a simple, straightforward style, details how Judge picked up
congregants for his far-flung flock at every stop: suburban families and the
homeless; AIDS patients and alcoholics; firefighters and a paralyzed police
officer; the loved ones of those killed aboard TWA Flight 800.
The tale ends on Sept. 11, 2001, when Judge became the first official victim
of the terrorist attack that killed 2,750 people in the Twin Towers. His
dying soon gave life to Lynch's remembrance.
Those touched by the peripatetic priest during his 68 years greeted word of
the Paulist Press publication with warm reviews.
"It sounds sweet -- a lovely idea," said actor and author Malachy McCourt.
"Anything that perpetuates the goodness of this man is fine with me."
Brendan Fay, a gay activist and Judge friend, recalled how easily "Father
Mike" bonded with children.
"He wrote notes and letters to children at their baptism," Fay recalled. "A
few who saved them now treasure them with the affection of relics. ... Kids
who never knew Father Judge can now read his story."
Longtime family friendship
Lynch's ties with Judge predate her birth. He counseled her family in good
times and in crisis -- the sudden death of her grandfather, the death of a
2-month-old sibling, her own daughter's lifesaving liver transplant.
"He made you feel that you were the one special person in his life," said
the 39-year-old Lynch. "What we've come to realize, six years later, is that
he did that for everybody. He was a constant presence."
Besides her book, Lynch runs the non-profit Mychal's Message, which provides
aid to the dispossessed. Proceeds from "He Said Yes" will also benefit the
homeless.
Lynch said getting the book in print was a long process. Plans fell through
with one publisher, and talks with an agent moved slowly. She was on the
verge of self-publishing, just to get the book out, when one of Father
Mike's fellow Franciscans steered her to Paulist Press.
Everything clicked. And, as Lynch hoped, the book, which came out Sept. 3,
was released in time for the anniversary of the attacks.
Judge, possessor of a dry Irish wit, would have enjoyed the book's title,
Fay said. The Franciscan father's instinctive "yes" made him indispensable
to many, but it was also wearing him out -- much like his phone answering
machines, which routinely broke down from overuse every six months.
"It was his gift, and it connected him to thousands," Fay said of the late
yes-man. "But it also wore him out. The title would make Mychal laugh."
On the Web:
paulistpress.com
mychalsmessage.org
More:
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXky...
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