In Honor of Father Mychal Judge, FDNY Chaplain

[CBHagman]

It's September 11th, by no means the only day of the year when I think of Mychal Judge, but it is in a sense his feast day. The now-legendary New York chaplain was the first recorded casualty of 9/11, and he was deeply mourned by a diverse community: firefighters, the homeless, recovering alcoholics, the gay and lesbian community, the famous and the obscure. I don't think I'll ever forget the newspaper photograph of a New York firefighter in full dress uniform, saluting and struggling to hold back tears as Father Mychal's casket passed by.

I didn't happen to know Mychal Judge, though my family has had a healthy degree of contact with various Franciscans, secular and otherwise, and even has some connections to one of the churches where Father Mychal served.

What the man has done is captured my imagination. His unique ministries, his woundedness, his warmth and humor are apparent in every documentary, every article, every story told about him.



Father Mychal Judge, OFM, May 11th, 1933-September 11th, 2001

A warm, sometimes funny portrait in New York magazine:

http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/sept11/features/5372/

The firemen loved him. He had an encyclopedic memory for their family members' names, birthdays, and passions; he frequently gave them whimsical presents. Once, after visiting President Clinton in Washington, he handed out cocktail napkins emblazoned with the presidential seal. He'd managed to stuff dozens of them into his habit before leaving the White House.

(SNIP)

Obviously, Mychal Judge was not what one might call a conventional priest. But he was, arguably, a typical New York Franciscan -- earthy, streetwise, thoroughly engaged with the characters and chaos of the city. If times required it, Judge would hold Mass in the most unlikely places, including firehouses and Pennsylvania Station. This drove certain literalists in the clergy crazy, but no matter -- Judge pressed on. (To one of his antagonists, a certain monsignor in the chancellery who frequently phoned to admonish him, Judge once said: "If I've ever done anything to embarrass or hurt the church I love so much, you can burn me at the stake in front of St. Patrick's.")

The other pillar of Judge's spiritual philosophy was Alcoholics Anonymous. Once, at the White House, he told Bill Clinton that he believed the founders of AA had done more for humanity than Mother Teresa.


The man is apparently a nonstop source of inspiration for bloggers everywhere. I found mention of him all over the map, thematically speaking. Just look at a few samples:

http://www.thewildgeese.com/pages/judge.html

Chuck Currie's blog:

http://chuckcurrie.blogs.com/chuck_currie/2006/04/the_saint_of_91.html

[hedgehog]

1. A true saint for our times.

For an icon image and an extended biography, go to this site

http://www.trinitystores.com/


and look for Mychal Judge under the title list. Sorry, I can't figure out how to link directly to this page.

[hedgehog]

2. BTW - your post led me to a movie about Judge - it's going on my Christmas

list for a lot of people this year

http://www.saintof9-11.com/saint/

[CBHagman]

3. I just rented that through Netflix.

And I'm seriously thinking of buying it for myself, or buying it as a gift for someone else.

For readers who find it terribly painful to deal with the visual accounts of 9/11, I should emphasize that while that story is included, the bulk of the film deals with Father Mychal's unique ministry and life story. There are some real treasures there, in the form of earthy, funny, sometimes poignant accounts of his life.

[JNelson6563]

4. Really wonderful stuff.

We could use a million more like him.

Julie