Posted on 11/13/2001 4:25:45 PM PST by RobertBauman
ROME -- The helmet of Mychal Judge, the 68-year-old chaplain for the New York Fire Department killed while administering last rites to a dying firefighter on September 11 in New York, was presented to Pope John Paul II following Sunday mass at the Vatican.
Judge was a member of Dignity, the organization that represents the interests of lesbian and gay Catholics, though there was no mention made of this during the mass.
"I offer a warm welcome to the delegation from the New York City Fire Department, so many of whose members lost their lives in the terrorist attack of September 11," John Paul II said in English to the New York delegation made up of family members and fire fighters attending the Mass at St Peter's Basilica.
The delegation approached the pope and knelt before him as one of the firefighters gave John Paul the white helmet emblazoned with a gold cross.
Former President Bill Clinton and New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton were among the more than 3,000 mourners who attended the chaplain's funeral on September 15 in New York. The president called Judge's death a special loss and said, "We should live his life as an example of what has to prevail."
He was a close friend of New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
AIDS philanthropist Edward Maloney told the Advocate he once asked Judge how he survived in New York's conservative archdiocese. "He put his fingers to his lips as if to shush the question."
Said Maloney, "Father Judge was neither out nor closeted. He knew how to walk that fine line and work behind the scenes. He brought bravery, dedication, loyalty -- and a touch of sexuality -- to the two institutions he cherished: the church and the fire department."
I still don't see a shred of proof that he was a homosexual. Only that he was an honorable celibate Clergy who rejected the homosexual lifestyle and its dangers.
And in the narrow gap in that false dichotomy lies the entirety of the heterosexual world that believes there are other dimmensions of being besides whether one is homosexual or not.
It was linked to in the sentence right after the one of Sullivan's you quoted.
Mychal Judge was there at the World Trade Center against his better safety administering the last rights to the fallen. He was a brave man doing the Lord's work providing comfort and salvation to the dying in the wake of the atrocity while others (majority straight I am sure) were fleeing the scene. He lost his own life in that service. His bravery should be a lesson to all of us.
From reading the article posted it seems those who actually knew him, for example Maloney, knew he was gay.
What I find intriguing is not the gays and lesbians who have seen Father Judge as a hero for their cause as evidenced by the way he lived and died - but those who are personally offended by that pride.
Your information does agree 100% with the New Bigot Order (N.B.O.).
Welcome to the 2001. We no longer lynch blacks from trees, deny women the right to vote or demand that homosexuals hide in fear from straight men uncomfortable with their own sexuality.
Hatred is the last thing I want associated with my political agenda. You can disagree with someone's lifestyle but cannot deny them the proper respect for their heroic actions nor should you refuse to learn a lesson from those actions. To refuse the respect that Friar Judge deserves because of his sexuality is outrageous.
That's exactly what I'm talking about. I read the article in New York Magazine and it doesn't say a single thing indicating the Father was a homosexual. Did you bother to read the article. The homosexual militants like Andrew Sullivan keept trying to claim all these people as part of their crowd while the facts be damned. Do you have any proof he was anything other than a celibate Clergy? Or do you deny there are people such as the ex-gays who have rejected the homosexual lifestyle?
as to the homosexual community, seems to me that for them to look to the likes of fr. judge for an example of a good life well lived might not be that bad an idea.
dep
Why are you in the pro-homosexual crowd always making up this false martyrdom stuff? No one said a single thing trying to smear Father Mike. In fact it is the gays who are doing so. No one tried to lessen his heroism at all. We are just pointing out that he wasn't a homosexual. If you want to normalize your lifestyle, you will have to do it without Michael Judge, because there is absolutely no proof that he practiced the gay lifestyle by any stretch of the imagination. Why is it so important for you for him to be a 'homosexual hero' rather than just a HERO (who rejected the gay lifestyle)?
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