Reconciliation Catholic Church™ - Blessed Mychal Judge

As Muslim extremists flew highjacked commercial airplanes into the towers of the World Trade Center on
September 11, 2001, they screamed, “God is Great!” to complete their act of self-chosen “martyrdom”.
Thousands of innocent people were killed, of many nationalities and different walks of life. The first official
casualty was an elderly Franciscan priest who had just administered the last rites to a fireman who had been
struck by the body of a woman who had jumped from the towers. His name was Mychal Judge and he was
chaplain of the fire department.

The Koran begins with the words, “In the name of God most beneficent, most merciful.” Most world religions
proclaim God’s mercy and compassion. The word martyr comes from the Greek word for witness. Mychal
Judge was a true martyr who died bearing witness to God’s mercy and beneficence, after a long life spent in
the same way.

Fr. Mychal Judge wore his Franciscan habit almost everywhere and rejoiced in his vow of poverty. The holy
foolishness of the first Franciscans weaves in and out of the story of his life. As a priest he often sought out and
confronted people who had been rebuffed by the harshness of other priests. His chief ministries were to the
firemen of New York City, to recovering alcoholics in AA, to people suffering from AIDS, and to Franciscans
preparing to make their solemn vows.

Notre Dame gay alumni, Phil Donahue honor Fr. Mychal Judge
By CHUCK COLBERT
New York

As dozens of gay Notre Dame alumni gathered here for a reunion weekend, the Republican mayor of New York
City recognized them, a gesture that has not yet been made by school officials.

The greetings and best wishes from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg were read at a gathering of the Gay and
Lesbian Alumni of the University of Notre Dame and St. Mary’s College, as the group presented a posthumous
award to Fr. Mychal Judge, the Franciscan chaplain who died accompanying firefighters into the lobby of the
north tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

More than 100 people, including nearly 50 lesbian and gay alumni of the two schools, attended the Sept. 28
event. The Gay and Lesbian Alumni group, which was formed in 1993, has over 750 members. University
officials have not recognized it as an official alumni group.

The Thomas A. Dooley Award that was bestowed on Judge is given to persons “who, through their faith-based
backgrounds centered in gospel values, have demonstrated personal courage, compassion and commitment
to advance the human rights and civil rights of lesbian and gay Americans.”

The annual award is named for a gay graduate of Notre Dame who achieved fame in the 1950s as a physician
who established charitable hospitals to assist the needy of Vietnam and Laos. Dooley died of cancer at the
age of 34 in 1961.

Phil Donahue, a Notre Dame alumnus, 2000 Dooley Award recipient and MSNBC-TV host, presented this year’
s award. Accepting for Judge was Brendan Fay, member of New York’s Lavender and Green Alliance of gay
and lesbian Irish-Americans, and a close friend of Judge.

Donahue said, “It’s clear that by any brief review of his life, Fr. Judge exemplified the very best of male
religious. He was a worker priest who, like Tom Dooley, had to die before we could celebrate the totality of his
humanness.”

In his acceptance, Fay said, “Mychal Judge chose to follow a path of honesty and openness in life, both as a
Catholic priest and a gay man. His ministry of compassion and his quest for peace and reconciliation will be an
inspiration for generations to come.”

Fay recalled Judge’s decision to participate in an all-inclusive St. Patrick’s Day celebration. “He joined us in
Franciscan habit, prayed with us, blessed many along the way, including some who came to jeer,” Fay said.

After his death on 9/11, Judge became a gay-rights hero. President Bush invoked his name in signing the
Mychal Judge Act, which grants death benefits to the beneficiaries, including same-sex partners, of public
safety workers killed in the line of duty.

The Notre Dame alumni group also bestows a $1,000 gift. This year’s donation went to the Ali Forney House, a
homeless shelter for gay youth.

Related Web site

Gay and Lesbian Alumni of the University of Notre Dame and St. Mary’s College
www.galandsmc.org

National Catholic Reporter, October 18, 2002

THE TABLET
International Catholic Newspaper
Thetablet.co.uk
"The Church in the World"
World Church News

01 March 2003

The fireman saint of New York.

Reports of miracles following prayers to Fr Mychal Judge, the Franciscan fire chaplain killed at the World Trade
Centre on 11 September, have bolstered an informal campaign for his canonisation, Richard Major reports
from New York.

A four-year-old in Rhode Island who was severely mentally disabled is said to have begun to speak "almost
instantly" when his fireman father invoked Fr Judge. In Colorado, his intercession is credited with healing the
hole in the heart of a baby whose parents had named him Mychal in his honour. There is also a report that a
hydrocephalic child was born well after Fr Judge prayed over his pregnant mother.

Fr Judge's cause has had no official backing from church authorities. The archdiocese of New York has
referred the question to his Franciscan province, which says only that Fr Judge was a good friar who
"respected his vows" but who should not be set on a pedestal. Fr Judge was a homosexual and recovering
alcoholic who offered support to gay rights groups. There are also procedural problems: formal investigations
cannot begin until five years after his death.