"I thought of my gay self and how the people I meet never get to know me fully."

[EFerrari]

Saint of 9/11: Remembering NY Fire Chaplain Mychal Judge, Gay Catholic Priest Killed at WTC


Father_judge

Hundreds of people marched the streets of New York City Sunday to honor the memory of Fr. Mychal Judge, the first recorded victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. Judge, a New York City Fire Department chaplain, was 68-years-old when he was killed while giving last rites to a firefighter at the scene. He was a larger than life figure, with admirers and friends across the political and social spectrum, and whose life is commemorated in the acclaimed documentary, “Saint of 9/11.” The film is notable for its effort to portray a half-hidden secret about the priest: he was gay. In his private diaries, the revered Catholic priest wrote of how, "I thought of my gay self and how the people I meet never get to know me fully." We speak with Brendan Fay, longtime gay rights activist and independent filmmaker who produced "Saint of 9/11,” and play excerpts from the documentary as well as his upcoming film, "Remembering Mychal.”

Filed under 9/11, Gay Rights, LGBT

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/9/6/saint_of_9_11_remembering_ny

[xchrom]

1. bless you father judge -- you are with the saints now. nt

[monmouth]

2. I have a lump in my throat and haven't even clicked on the link yet...n/t

[Zorra]

3. +1.

[EFerrari]

4. Here's the column Any Goodman wrote for this story:

9/11 Victim 0001: Father Mychal’s Message

Posted on Sep 6, 2011

By Amy Goodman

The body bag marked “Victim 0001” on Sept. 11, 2001, contained the corpse of Father Mychal Judge, a Catholic chaplain with the Fire Department of New York. When he heard about the disaster at the World Trade Center, he donned his Catholic collar and firefighter garb and raced downtown. He saw people jump to their deaths to avoid the inferno more than 1,000 feet above. At 9:59 a.m., the South Tower collapsed, and the force and debris from that mass of steel, concrete, glass and humanity as it hit the ground is likely what killed Father Mychal. His was the first recorded death from the attacks that morning. His life’s work should be central to the 10th anniversary commemorations of the Sept. 11 attacks: peace, tolerance and reconciliation.

snip

Father Mychal was well known to the poor and afflicted of New York City and New Jersey. He helped the homeless, and people with HIV/AIDS. As a member of the Franciscan order, he would often wear the traditional brown robe and sandals. But there was a half-known secret about him: He was gay. In his private diaries, the revered Catholic priest wrote, “I thought of my gay self and how the people I meet never get to know me fully.” The diaries were given to journalist Michael Daly by Judge’s twin sister, Dympna, and appear in Daly’s book “The Book of Mychal: The Surprising Life and Heroic Death of Father Mychal Judge.”

snip

On Sept. 20, 2001, President George W. Bush addressed a joint session of Congress. He declared, famously, “They hate our freedoms.” He welcomed Lisa Beamer to the Capitol, the widow of Todd Beamer, the passenger on board United Flight 93 who was heard to say, “Let’s roll” before attacking the hijackers. Beamer’s fellow passenger, Mark Bingham, a rugby player and public relations consultant who also joined in the fight to prevent the hijackers from using the plane as a weapon, was openly gay. As was David Charlebois, the co-pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, which hit the Pentagon.

A decade later, Brendan Fay reflects on the life of his friend: “On 9/11, the one thing we can take from Mychal Judge is, in the midst of this hell and war and evil and violence, here is this man who directs us to another possible path as human beings: We can choose the path of compassion and nonviolence and reconciliation. Mychal Judge had a heart as big as New York. There was room for everybody. And I think that’s the lesson.”

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/9_11_victim_0001_father_mychals_message_20110906/