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Fallen 9/11 priest emerges as an icon for gay Catholics (Catholic Caucus)
America Magazine ^ | August 26, 2011 | MICHAEL O'LOUGHLIN

Posted on 08/27/2011 1:21:53 PM PDT by NYer

Fr. Mychal Judge, the fallen chaplain of the Fire Department of New York City, will be honored with a statue in front of his former parish, according to a story from Religion News Services (via The Huffington Post):Fr Mychal Judge

When All Saints Church sought to signal its hospitality to gays and lesbians, the Catholic parish in Syracuse, N.Y., turned to a well-known image from the 9/11 attacks: five firefighters carrying a body from the wreckage of the World Trade Center.

The body belonged to the Rev. Mychal Judge, a Franciscan fire chaplain who rushed to the burning buildings and was killed by falling debris. Later, a half-hidden secret emerged about the gallant priest: he was gay.

All Saints hopes the statue will demonstrate that the parish, following Judge's lead, is committed to closing the chasms between rich and poor, black and white, gay and straight, said the Rev. Fred Daley, the church's pastor.

The story is an interesting one, given the Church's hard-line teachings on homosexuality. The article explores Fr. Judge's priestly vocation and his sexuality, with insight from America's own Fr. James Martin:

The gay Catholic pundit Andrew Sullivan has called Judge's death an "emblem of service and holiness and courage," and argued that, by the Vatican's logic, the priest "should never have been ordained."

Researchers estimate that thousands of gay priests like Judge serve the church while remaining faithful to their vows of celibacy. Only a few, however, have publicly revealed their sexual orientation, leaving a dearth of positive role models for gay Catholics, Daley said.

The Rev. James Martin, culture editor of the Jesuit magazine America, said some Catholics are uncomfortable with Judge's sexual orientation and downplay that aspect of his life.

"But why should they be? For all we know, he lived a perfectly celibate life," Martin said. "He lived as the Catechism asked him to live and kept his ordination promises. Gay, straight or somewhere in between, he's a hero. If you rush into a burning building to minister to people, while knowing that you might die, that's true holiness."

Omitting any mention of Judge's sexuality, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has used Judge's heroic life and death for its own ends: in promotional materials encouraging men to join priesthood.

"One's orientation should never dominate one's ministry as a priest," said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the bishops. "Clearly, it did not dominate the ministry of Father Judge, who by all reports was held in high esteem by many, especially by the fire department he served so well."

Read the full article here.


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; History; Ministry/Outreach
KEYWORDS: 911; celibacy; frmychaljudge; homosexualagenda; mychaljudge; revmychaljudge
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1 posted on 08/27/2011 1:21:56 PM PDT by NYer
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To: netmilsmom; thefrankbaum; Tax-chick; GregB; saradippity; Berlin_Freeper; Litany; SumProVita; ...

Ping!


2 posted on 08/27/2011 1:22:46 PM PDT by NYer ("Be kind to every person you meet. For every person is fighting a great battle." St. Ephraim)
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To: NYer; Elendur; it_ürür; Bockscar; Mary Kochan; Bed_Zeppelin; YellowRoseofTx; Rashputin; ...
+

Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:

Add me / Remove me

Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.


3 posted on 08/27/2011 1:23:48 PM PDT by narses ("Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions." Chesterton)
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To: NYer
This is an urban legend. First Things reported shortly after the event that the priest was NOT gay. But the homosexual lobby has to have a hero so they made one up. Disgraceful and tawdry they would smear this good man just to have a squalid trophy martyr of their own.
4 posted on 08/27/2011 1:25:17 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: NYer

There’s one thing they’re ignoring here .... being homosexual and committing acts of homosexuality are two different things.

Now, if this priest committed such acts, he’s guilty. If not, then he set the example for gays to follow ... celibacy.


5 posted on 08/27/2011 1:25:28 PM PDT by al_c (http://www.blowoutcongress.com)
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To: NYer

Just to further clarify my first comment...

Yes, this article acknowledges gay, celibate priests. My point was that the gay community, while seeking to honor Fr. Judge, are at the same time ignoring the message he (and others like him) lived right in front of them. Even if he was gay, he didn’t (as far as I know) act on it. That’s the model they should be following.


6 posted on 08/27/2011 1:28:20 PM PDT by al_c (http://www.blowoutcongress.com)
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To: NYer

hmmm...I had read that people who actually knew him said that he wasn’t gay, or at least no one knew because all indications were that he led a chaste life.


7 posted on 08/27/2011 1:32:56 PM PDT by mockingbyrd
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To: hinckley buzzard

Yup. The really sickening part is that he’s passed on and could not defend himself. The fags truly are a screwed up bunch.


8 posted on 08/27/2011 1:37:33 PM PDT by max americana (FUBO NATION 2012 FK BARAK)
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To: mockingbyrd

Its very unusual for gays to glorify someone who was openly chaste. They usually only celebrate promiscuity


9 posted on 08/27/2011 1:37:46 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: NYer
yes, follow his example: be celibate, go to confession, do something for someone else, get hit by a falling body.
10 posted on 08/27/2011 1:53:42 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand
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To: hinckley buzzard
Feminists have long advocated "Celebrating a history worthy of our destiny" or "Creating a past useful to our future" -- and the gays do the same thing.

Check out "gay history" anywhere and see how they distort sources to abduct people into "The Gay Community" after they're dead: King David, Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln, whoever they can get their hands on.

Even the LGBT's symbolic equivalent of Martin Luther King --- Harvey Milk --- is largely a posthumous creation. Yes, he was gay (and an active sodomite.) But he did not notably campaign for gay issues, and the guy who murdered him did not do so for anti-gay reasons: it was an unstable political rival with an unrelated grudge.

Fr. Mychal Judge's friends and his religious order should move strong and fast to set his story "straight".

11 posted on 08/27/2011 2:41:41 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Dic mihi solum facta, domina - Just the facts, ma'am...)
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Judge’s family and close friends say he was not a homosexual. The homosexuals are expropriating him for their own purposes. Hell,they tell the poor dumb kids in high school and college that people like Lincoln and Washington were homosexuals.


12 posted on 08/27/2011 2:48:09 PM PDT by Godwin1
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Judge’s family and close friends say he was not a homosexual. The homosexuals are expropriating him for their own purposes. Hell,they tell the poor dumb kids in high school and college that people like Lincoln and Washington were homosexuals.


13 posted on 08/27/2011 2:48:22 PM PDT by Godwin1
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To: NYer
Fallen 9/11 priest emerges as an icon for gay Catholics (Catholic Caucus)

Emerges? I thought it would have been more appropriate like this:

Fallen 9/11 priest comes out as an icon for gay Catholics (Catholic Caucus)
14 posted on 08/27/2011 2:50:03 PM PDT by aruanan
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To: NYer
The body belonged to the Rev. Mychal Judge, a Franciscan fire chaplain who rushed to the burning buildings and was killed by falling debris.

And yet no religious involvement with the 10th anniversary celebration. And no first responders.

He embodied both.

15 posted on 08/27/2011 2:53:06 PM PDT by Tanniker Smith (I didn't know she was a liberal when I married her.)
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To: NYer
How I will always remember Fr. Mychal Judge:


16 posted on 08/27/2011 2:57:35 PM PDT by COBOL2Java (Obama is the least qualified guy in whatever room he walks into.)
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To: NYer

Placemark - turning comp off due to big thunderstorm heading my way, hearing thunder now.


17 posted on 08/27/2011 3:25:07 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: NYer
Lies.

Fr. Judge was not "gay" as that implies living the lifestyle. If he struggled with same-sex attraction, that's nobody's business but his so long as he didn't act on it.
18 posted on 08/27/2011 3:51:20 PM PDT by Antoninus (Nothing that offends God can possibly be a legitimate right.)
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To: NYer
A 9/11 Hijacking: How 'Gay' Activists Smeared Father Mychal Judge
19 posted on 08/27/2011 4:07:39 PM PDT by gubamyster
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To: NYer

I found many of the comments in that magazine disturbing, to say the least. One poster threw out the weird assertion that half the priests in the US are homosexuals. Others were not as ridiculous, yet their arguments were far from what I would expect from Catholics, even nominal Catholics.

Arguments similar to what might come from atheists, or liberals committed to dragging the church into the umbrella of leftism, subverting it totally to another cause.


20 posted on 08/27/2011 5:09:10 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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