From today's NY Times:
September 25, 2005
Admirers of Fallen 9/11 Hero Disdain the Vatican's Likely Plan to Bar Gays as Priests
By ANDY NEWMAN
The Rev. Mychal F. Judge, the Fire Department chaplain who died in the rubble of 9/11, was, and still is, one of the most widely loved Roman Catholic priests in New York City's recent history.
For 40 years, Father Judge tirelessly ministered to firefighters, their grieving widows, AIDS patients, homeless people, Flight 800 victims' families and countless others. At his funeral, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani called him a saint, a sentiment that admirers have followed up by campaigning for his canonization. A simple prayer that Father Judge wrote has been circulated around the world and attached to thousands of donations to the needy. Pope John Paul II accepted the gift of his helmet.
Father Judge was also, according to many of his friends of all sexual orientations, a homosexual. A celibate homosexual, he told friends, but a homosexual nonetheless. And reports last week that the Vatican is likely to try to bar gay men, even celibate ones, from the priesthood stirred anger among those who revere his memory.
The former city fire commissioner Thomas Von Essen, a close friend of Father Judge's, said Thursday that excluding men of his caliber from the priesthood would be simply "a shame."
Mr. Von Essen, a married, practicing Catholic who said that Father Judge came out to him years before his death, added, "To sacrifice your life to God and try to do so much good every day and to be prevented from doing that - it's no wonder they can't get anyone to join the church to become a priest or a nun."
On Thursday, Andrew Sullivan, the outspokenly gay and Catholic journalist, posted on his Web site an oft-reprinted photograph of Father Judge's limp body being carried off by firefighters on 9/11 minutes after he had given last rites to one of their own. Above it was the sardonic headline "Unfit for the Priesthood."
This article caught my eye because Father Mike Judge was a friend of my family's. I was brought up in a Catholic home, but not a dogmatic one. And my formative experiences with the Church were very different from the typical images that the Catholic Chruch brings to mind. The priests I knew, including Father Mike, would come over to my family's house on Frtiday night with a case of beer and a dozen friends and they'd be up with my parents until the sun came up, laughing uproariously. I can't tell you how many times a priest would leave my house to go directly to the 7AM mass.
I've since left the Church when I realized that those guys that I grew up with were the rank and file members of the church and didn't represent the hierarchy, or even the church as a whole. But I felt God's presence in those guys in a way I have never felt it from the Chruch as a whole. I feel God's presence in you guys-in the people I've gotten to know and love here. The Church's idea of a god who exists only in whom they deem worthy is antithetical to the God that I want in my life. And the very idea that people like Father Mike would be specifically excluded is the reason that I left the chuch behind.
So that's that. I hope everyone had a good weekend. I certainly did. I saw the White Stripes on Saturday night and the Dalai Lama on Sunday morning. I spoke to Cat (and of course Rapture, but that goes without saying). I met up with Maxi and got to know Robin a bit.I ate and drank well, got too little sleep, and will feel terrible tomorrow morning. All the signs of a good weekend.
I hope you all survive your Mondays.
PS- I learned tonight that Vinyle and Laceyglove will be spending a weekend in NY in October. I can't be more excited about that.
September 25, 2005
Admirers of Fallen 9/11 Hero Disdain the Vatican's Likely Plan to Bar Gays as Priests
By ANDY NEWMAN
The Rev. Mychal F. Judge, the Fire Department chaplain who died in the rubble of 9/11, was, and still is, one of the most widely loved Roman Catholic priests in New York City's recent history.
For 40 years, Father Judge tirelessly ministered to firefighters, their grieving widows, AIDS patients, homeless people, Flight 800 victims' families and countless others. At his funeral, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani called him a saint, a sentiment that admirers have followed up by campaigning for his canonization. A simple prayer that Father Judge wrote has been circulated around the world and attached to thousands of donations to the needy. Pope John Paul II accepted the gift of his helmet.
Father Judge was also, according to many of his friends of all sexual orientations, a homosexual. A celibate homosexual, he told friends, but a homosexual nonetheless. And reports last week that the Vatican is likely to try to bar gay men, even celibate ones, from the priesthood stirred anger among those who revere his memory.
The former city fire commissioner Thomas Von Essen, a close friend of Father Judge's, said Thursday that excluding men of his caliber from the priesthood would be simply "a shame."
Mr. Von Essen, a married, practicing Catholic who said that Father Judge came out to him years before his death, added, "To sacrifice your life to God and try to do so much good every day and to be prevented from doing that - it's no wonder they can't get anyone to join the church to become a priest or a nun."
On Thursday, Andrew Sullivan, the outspokenly gay and Catholic journalist, posted on his Web site an oft-reprinted photograph of Father Judge's limp body being carried off by firefighters on 9/11 minutes after he had given last rites to one of their own. Above it was the sardonic headline "Unfit for the Priesthood."
This article caught my eye because Father Mike Judge was a friend of my family's. I was brought up in a Catholic home, but not a dogmatic one. And my formative experiences with the Church were very different from the typical images that the Catholic Chruch brings to mind. The priests I knew, including Father Mike, would come over to my family's house on Frtiday night with a case of beer and a dozen friends and they'd be up with my parents until the sun came up, laughing uproariously. I can't tell you how many times a priest would leave my house to go directly to the 7AM mass.
I've since left the Church when I realized that those guys that I grew up with were the rank and file members of the church and didn't represent the hierarchy, or even the church as a whole. But I felt God's presence in those guys in a way I have never felt it from the Chruch as a whole. I feel God's presence in you guys-in the people I've gotten to know and love here. The Church's idea of a god who exists only in whom they deem worthy is antithetical to the God that I want in my life. And the very idea that people like Father Mike would be specifically excluded is the reason that I left the chuch behind.
So that's that. I hope everyone had a good weekend. I certainly did. I saw the White Stripes on Saturday night and the Dalai Lama on Sunday morning. I spoke to Cat (and of course Rapture, but that goes without saying). I met up with Maxi and got to know Robin a bit.I ate and drank well, got too little sleep, and will feel terrible tomorrow morning. All the signs of a good weekend.
I hope you all survive your Mondays.
PS- I learned tonight that Vinyle and Laceyglove will be spending a weekend in NY in October. I can't be more excited about that.
VIEW 25 of 34 COMMENTS
You can come to Ireland in my suitcase if you chip in for the ticket.
about your entry. i hope everyone can find their own path and stop harrassing others for theirs. there is no proof. only faith. people forget that. everyones beliefs are just as valid as the next.. see.. i think people get scared when their beliefs are challenged because they cant prove them. then they try to take down everyone around them.
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