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.
Wonder if the church will also want close the chasm between adulterers and faithful, or incestuous and normal too?
I was just thinking about the Baptism of the Lord by John the Baptist, how Christ Himself closed the gap between God and sinners, by standing with sinners.
Yes He did this, standing with sinners as if He Himself, the sinless One, needed baptism; sharing His Life with sinners, calling sinners to repentance and reconciliation, and dying for sinners.
Close the chasm? Yes. By the unthinkable riches of the Mercy of God.
So true. I hope folks won't judge Fr. Judge harshly based on those who want to use him for their own political purposes. He was truly selfless for putting himself in danger to minister to those in the shadows of the towers.
If you tell a lie long enough.....Isn’t it interesting that there was not a peep or whisper of homosexuality until the poor man was dead? Gay men leave trails. Where are the lovers? Where are the witnesses who saw him in the clubs? Where are the family members who say oh yeah he was gay? Where is the parishioners who say they saw young men hanging around at all hours of the night? Where is the housekeeper who changed the sheets? Where? They don’t exist. The poor man’s memory is being used.
Even if he was gay, he didn’t (as far as I know) act on it. That’s the model they should be following. >>
he wasn’t gay, he ministered to gays. The homosexual agenda used fr. m’s death to advance their sick lifestyle.
That's sick. What a twisted bunch of people.
It was St Vincents in NYC who took care of Aids patients during the epidemic. They went broke because of it as other patients were scared off and went to other hospitals in the city. They never financially recovered as most of the patients didn’t have money or insurance for the care. That along with 9-11 made them shut their doors 1-2 yrs ago. Homosexuals have very short memories. Fr Mychal Judge was one of many who cared for them. He wouldn’t leave the WTC and stayed to give confession. When part of the building fell on him he was actually hearing a confession. We need to claim him back and the only way to do that is to have him as a Blessed that way everything in his life must be examined with the utmost scrutiny.
Judge was considered a saint by many who knew him but if he was a saint it was because he struggled against temptation with the help of God's grace. Many gays do the same, and will probably make it into heaven before the homophobes
That said, the problem here is that those seeking to legalize promiscuity (homo and hetero) in the Catholic church are using him to promote the gay lifestyle.
And that is a problem.
In Catholic piety, we can pray to anyone in heaven to intercede with us to God, including our friends and relatives. So if you want to pray to Judge, go ahead.
Being declared a saint is a bit more difficult, since it requires an examination of their life and writings, a lapse of time to eliminate over enthusiatic followers, and a couple of miracles though their intercession for God's okay in the matter.
Lots of "heroes" who the libs want to make saints (e.g. Kennedy and Martin Luther King) were promiscuous to the end of their lives, and would never pass the test of sanctity.
So I think that the magazine is mixing up fame with sanctity.
Who cares what sexual orientation he was? He was a brave, selfless man regardless.
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.
The big thing that always annoys me is the false association that some make for their own interest. If the priest did not practice homosexual acts, then he was not gay or homosexual, and exemplary to how people attracted to the same gender should be living their lives. Feeling attracted to the same gender and practicing certain behaviors are totally different things.
I have heard the wierdest arguments from all sorts of people that Abraham Lincoln, Isaac Newton, and who knows who else were homosexual, but at most it’s cherry-picking, when you get into more of the details about any of these people from various accounts.
Exactly. If anything, if he was a same-sex attracted individual who abstained from sexual relations because of his faith he’s exactly what the “gay rights movement” does not like and in fact despises.
Exactly. If anything, if he was a same-sex attracted individual who abstained from sexual relations because of his faith he’s exactly what the “gay rights movement” does not like and in fact despises.
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