Posted on 08/18/2002 3:05:56 PM PDT by NYer
Victims of the September 11 hijackers were not just people. One victim of the September 11 terrorists was the truth about a Catholic priest. This is the story of how homosexual activists hijacked the truth about Father Mychal Judge.
The Father Mike We Knew
By now, nearly everyone in America knows the story of Father Mike. He was born May 11, 1933, and ordained as a Franciscan priest on February 25, 1961. He died September 11, 2001, administering last rites of the Catholic faith to fallen firefighters as the World Trade Center Towers collapsed. Before his tragic death, Father Mike ministered to families in parishes throughout the metropolitan New York area, to students at Sienna College, and to New York City firefighters. And Father Mike ministered to the homeless, the sick and dying of AIDS, to homosexuals, heterosexuals and especially to anyone needing help. Father Mike saw Christ in everyone without exception and without objection.
Yet, as is typical with activists, the truth about someone never stood in their way to advance their agenda. This was true with the homosexual activists who saw in Father Mike's heroic death a chance to attack the Roman Catholic Church. It didn't matter if what they said about Father Mike wasn't true. All that mattered was that a heroic, celibate, faithful Catholic priest could become a homosexual icon. This is how it happened.
The Father Mike I Knew
I knew Father Mike for about one decade before his death. Father Mike was very close to the Steven and Patti Ann McDonald family. Father Mike was present at the Hospital after Police Officer Steven McDonald was shot and paralyzed in 1987. Father Mike prayed with Officer McDonald and his family and was present when Officer McDonald, although completely paralyzed, forgave the person who shot him. The McDonald family and Father Mike shared a special love of Ireland. I was privileged to help Father Mike and Officer McDonald travel to Northern Ireland spreading Jesus' message of reconciliation through forgiveness in that troubled part of the world.
During the planning for one of these trips to Northern Ireland, a homosexual activist named Brendan Fay contacted me. After a very successful first trip to Northern Ireland where Officer McDonald and Father Mike preached Jesus' message of reconciliation through forgiveness, the second trip was being planned amid much publicity. Father Mike told me that Brendan Fay, who was born in Ireland, really wanted to become part of our Project Reconciliation Team. Father Mike told me that Brendan Fay was someone he was trying to help bring closer to Christ, although Brendan had a history of being a troublemaker.
The Homosexual Activist
I also knew Brendan Fay as the person who attacked the Catholic Church by trying to have homosexuals march as a recognized unit in the New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade. Now, we all know that homosexuals and heterosexuals have marched in the St. Patrick's Day Parade since it began. Yet, homosexual activists didn't just want that equal right to march. Homosexual activists like Brendan Fay wanted recognition and approval of their conduct in a Catholic event by being accepted for their sins. Brendan Fay was the person everyone in New York City saw on television and who was mentioned elsewhere in the media. Brendan Fay had an activist's mission to force Irish-Catholics to accept in their Parade not love of the sinner, but love of the sin.
I met with Brendan Fay and Father Mike for lunch. Brendan Fay told me how much he wanted to help plan and participate in our trip to Northern Ireland. Brendan Fay told me of many contacts he had in Ireland and how his participation could help make the trip even more successful. I sensed that Brendan was not being truthful, but just a troublemaker as Father Mike mentioned. I also sensed that all Brendan Fay wanted was a headline or a story about him or his homosexual agenda through this trip to Northern Ireland. Brendan Fay wanted trouble, not reconciliation.
Nevertheless, I agreed to have Brendan join the planning and even the trip - on one condition. That condition was that the trip would only be about Police Officer Steven McDonald and his effort to spread Jesus' message of reconciliation through forgiveness in Northern Ireland. I told Brendan this meant no names are ever mentioned in referencing the trip except Police Officer Steven McDonald and Father Mike. Brendan asked me, "Does that mean I can't do television interviews?" I told Brendan clearly, "Absolutely not. This is a story about Steven McDonald and his trip. This is not about you or me or any agenda." As a result, Brendan never followed through on the planning or the trip to Northern Ireland. He had no interest in the message of reconciliation. If the story wasn't about Brendan Fay, Brendan was not interested.
Father Mike's Death
The next time I met Brendan Fay was three years later at Father Mike's funeral mass, at the Franciscan friary in Manhattan, which was packed with mourners. Everyone I saw was solemn and sad - everyone, that is, except Brendan Fay. Brendan was smiling and strangely happy. I greeted him before Mass started and watched him carry on almost joyfully on a day when tears were on the faces of everyone else. I didn't know why Brendan was acting in that strange, almost demonic, way, but I would soon find out.
Prior to Father Mike's death, everyone who knew him for any length of time would never describe him as a homosexual. In fact, never has even one homosexual activist ever provided evidence that Father Mike was "gay." Yet, in newspapers immediately after the funeral mass, Brendan Fay was quoted saying that Father Mike was a homosexual. Fay arranged a media event where many people spoke of Father Mike's concern for the homosexual community and claimed Father Mike was "gay." This was news to me, and I knew Father Mike for nearly a decade.
The Media Lies About Father Mike
After the first series of newspapers stories reported that Father Mike was a homosexual, suddenly politicians were standing up in Congress lamenting the death of "Father Mike, the gay priest." Concerned that Father Mike was being used by homosexual activists, I began to contact many people who knew him for as long or longer than I did. I wanted the truth about Father Mike to be published. Not one of these longtime friends every heard or saw anything that Father Mike did that would indicate he was homosexual. I personally spent weeks at a time with Father Mike where he and I spoke about many personal matters. Not once was there even a suggestion that Father Mike was "gay." He was a celibate Catholic priest and nothing more.
As time passed, Brendan Fay began to organize events claming Father Mike to be "Hero, Priest and Gay." The media began to refer to Father Mike as being not just "gay," but an "openly gay" priest. None of this was true. I wrote a letter to Gannett Newspapers about one such reference to Father Mike. Gannett responded by citing law that you can't defame a dead person. I wrote back to say that I wasn't bringing a defamation claim; I only wanted the truth about Father Mike to be published. I received no further response. The New York Times also wrote an article alleging that Father Mike was a homosexual. I wrote to the Times requesting evidence, since many, many people did not believe Father Mike to be "gay." I received no response from the Times.
In fact, when one newspaper wrote an article proclaiming that Father Mike was homosexual and the newspaper was challenged about the story, the editor's response was shocking. The editor wrote that it really didn't matter if Father Mike was a homosexual or not. Homosexuals are a disadvantaged group, the editor said, and if the story helped them with their self-esteem, then Father Mike would be happy. In other words, the truth about Father Mike being a faithful Catholic priest didn't matter in our Politically Correct world.
As more time passed after Father Mike's death, homosexual activists embellished their story even more. During "Gay Pride Week" in the New York City area, one newspaper published the falsehood that Father Mike had been a "leader" in the homosexual "GLBT movement" (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual). The lies about Father Mike continued to grow in the Politically Correct media. Sadly, even a member of the Catholic hierarchy in New York commented in the media that Father Mike was "a gay Priest." When questioned later about this comment, the priest admitted he only knew what he had "read in the media" about Father Mike.
The Truth About Father Mike
The truth is that Father Mychal F. Judge, O.F.M., was a wonderful Catholic priest. Father Mike saw Christ in everyone. He ministered to everyone with a smile, a prayer and the love of Jesus Christ in his heart. Father Mike was tireless in living a life as a Priest modeled after St. Francis of Assisi. Although homosexual activists have hijacked this truth, I know that, from heaven, Father Mike would want you to know the truth about him. He would also want you to pray for those who bear false witness. Most of all, Father Mike would care not that you remember him, but that you remember and live the Prayer of St. Francis.
Later in the footage, when the fire company immediately saddled up and drove downtown, the French documentary-maker and his cameraman rode with them and shot a lot of footage in the lobby of WTC 1, including footage of Chaplain Judge in the minutes immediately prior to the collapse of WTC 2, when he was very much functional and concerned as everyone else was. The dust must have got him, by cutting off his air -- like it did a lot of people. You may have seen this footage. Parts of it are horrendous, just horrific. And they didn't even shoot the bad stuff -- like the people on fire that they passed on entering the lobby, who'd been knocked down by burning jet fuel that came rocketing 1200' down the elevator shafts and literally blew some of the elevators apart, busted out some of the plate-glass windows in the lobby, and even knocked slabs of marble off the elevator banks. That whole business was hell on wheels, and the Frenchman caught a lot of it -- I think he'll be up for a Pulitzer.
I vividly recall that debacle. On a recent EWTN program, Fr. Groeschel, recalling this event, noted that ActUp's founder, Steve Michael, had called for a priest before dieing. In a strange twist of irong, he then went on to say that the catholic church had buried. him. He reminded the listeners, however, that Mr. Michael was probably doing serious time in purgatory.
You know about Father Mychal Judge, the gay priest who was killed giving the last rites to fallen firefighters at the World Trade Center? No you don’t. Fr. Mychal was not homosexual, never mind, as has been endlessly repeated in the media, “openly gay.” He was a faithful celibate priest noted for his heroic service to all in need. The story of his being gay is a total fabrication of homosexual activists and their friends in the press. So says Dennis Lynch, a lawyer who was a close friend and collaborator of Fr. Mychal’s who knew him for ten years and has gone to the trouble of interviewing scores of others who worked with him closely. All of them agree that the legend of “the gay priest” is nothing but propaganda. As you might expect, there are those who persist in claiming that they know Fr. Judge was gay. I don’t know what to believe, but I have talked with Mr. Lynch and find his argument persuasive. For further information, he can be reached at deallaw@aol.com.
Why the term PROBABLY GAY? That is disrespectful. Is it all right for anyone to say anything about someone and make it true. There was a time when one did not say anything about someone unless it was a fact and even then to say something negative one had to think it could ruin someones reputation. What they did to Father Mike was a scandal to his reputation because he was a Catholic priest. They did not care about how good a priest he was but it was to take a slap at the church. And PROBABLY he was not gay. I say that because I do not know.
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