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):
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.
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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.
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.
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.
Yup. The really sickening part is that he’s passed on and could not defend himself. The fags truly are a screwed up bunch.
Its very unusual for gays to glorify someone who was openly chaste. They usually only celebrate promiscuity
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".
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.
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.
And yet no religious involvement with the 10th anniversary celebration. And no first responders.
He embodied both.
Placemark - turning comp off due to big thunderstorm heading my way, hearing thunder now.
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.
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