Sainthood bid starting for N.Y. fire chaplain
By Jennifer Garza -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Saturday, May 25, 2002
To many who knew him, the Rev. Mychal Judge was a saint. Now supporters want to make it official.

Judge is the Franciscan priest who died while giving last rites to a fallen firefighter in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. He is listed as the first casualty of the attacks on the twin towers.

In the months since his death, Judge's stature has grown as stories of his generosity and kindness have spread. AIDS activists talk about how he was one of the first priests to counsel AIDS patients. Families who lost loved ones on TWA Flight 800 in 1996 off Long Island have spoken eloquently about how the priest spent hours helping them deal with their grief.

Touched by these stories and others, a group of people who never met Judge, a chaplain for the New York Fire Department, is now spearheading an effort to have him named a saint.

On Monday, Memorial Day, group members will officially announce their campaign to have Judge canonized. The group already has launched a Web site - www.saintmychal.com -- that will serve as a clearinghouse for information and news about Judge. It also will be the central place for all information on the push to bestow sainthood on the chaplain, according to organizers.

"Mychal Judge was a true American hero ... a priest who symbolized all the good priests do," said Burt Kearns, a New York City documentary producer and one of the leaders of the effort.

"Making him a saint is not only the right thing to do. It is just what the Catholic church needs right now."

Kearns, a self-described lapsed Catholic, admits convincing church officials that Judge should be a saint won't be easy. Sainthood investigations, which usually begin five years after a person's death, can take decades.

It's taken supporters of Juan Diego -- the Indian peasant who saw a vision of the Virgin Mary in 1531 -- years to push him through the canonization process. In July, Pope John Paul II is to travel to Mexico City, where he will make Diego a saint.

Kearns doesn't think the process for Judge, who was 68 when he died, should take that long. That's why he's using the Web site to ask people from all over the world to take a second look at Judge's life.

"We're hoping that there would be such strong support that they would speed up the process, just like they did for Mother Teresa," said Kearns, referring to the pope's decision to begin the sainthood process for Mother Teresa just two years after her death.

The Catholic Diocese of New York could not be reached for comment.

There has been a lot of interest in Judge since his death. A book is in the works, and a prayer that he wrote -- and had laminated to a card he carried with him all the time -- is now being copied all over the world:

"Lord, take me where you want me to go;

Let me meet who you want me to meet;

Tell me what you want me to say

And keep me out of your way."

Judge's friends say the priest was not perfect. They often teased him about his vanity. But they say they will always remember the way he was there for others.

At his funeral Sept. 15, a New York City police officer who had been shot in the line of duty and who had been counseled by Judge spoke about how the chaplain taught him to forgive. Gay activists talked about how he visited AIDS patients when no one else would.

He also was active in Alcoholics Anonymous. The day of his funeral would have been the 23rd anniversary of his sobriety.

His friends say the way Judge died -- helping others -- was typical of how he lived.

"The others died saving lives," Kearns said. "Mychal Judge died saving souls."

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