Should Father Mychal Judge be canonized?

Does it matter that he was gay?

Is it important that it's a myth that he died giving the last rites to a firefighter? [there's video proof he died in the WTC lobby when it collapsed.]

All these questions and more are discussed in this New York Times article (reg. req.)

He was a priest who died in an act of supreme selflessness (he walked into an inferno seeking to find people to help and bless). He was not only supportive of gay people, but supposedly defined himself as gay. He was an Irish-American. He had long done many loving and lovely things for the most downtrodden people in society--those who were sick, homeless, abandoned, who had nowhere to turn. It *all* matters, and to try and efface or elide the gay aspect ("he was one of the finest human beings on the earth," as if being gay precludes this) is problematic and homophobic. But of course not at all surprising.

As to his literal sainthood by the Roman Catholic Church, I won't comment. But at the very least he is one of the major heroes of what is one of the greatest tragedies in U.S. history.

It's a good article but making someone a saint either metaphorically or literally is too much...We are human beings and even the most perfect amongst us isn't really perfect: we are ever evolving... This guy sounds like a truly incredible human being not only because of his religious beliefs and practices but because of who he is overall: that includes his sexual orientation, his family relationships, his background, those he's loved, everything...As we've all seen recently, seperating a person into individual parts just doesn't tell the whole story...about anyone.

[ September 27, 2002: Message edited by: bryan d. ]

To answer your questions:

"Should Father Mychal Judge be canonized?"
We don't need to discuss this now. There's a really good reason why the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church has a five-year waiting period for sainthood, even for the most obvious candidates like Mother Teresa and, when he is called home, John Paul II.

"Does it matter that he was gay? "
No. Gay status is not a sin. Sex - heterosexual or homosexual - for a celibate priest is a sin and that would matter. His orientation is as relevant as his favorite ice cream flavor.

"Is it important that it's a myth that he died giving the last rites to a firefighter? [there's video proof he died in the WTC lobby when it collapsed.]"
And what exactly do you think he was doing in the WTC lobby? Drinking a Starbucks?

I've been thinking about this a lot today, since reading the article this morning. I actually got to meet--briefly--Mother Theresa in 1987, and it was among the most defining moments of my life. I was struggling with so many aspects of Catholicism at that point, especially with trying to reconcile being gay and Catholic at the same time. Her message to me was so simple and powerful: "Be the face of God's love." Nothing else mattered to her! Women can't be priests? I doubt she ever gave it a thought. Gays are against nature? They were as welcome to come to her mission and receive her ministry as any of God's children. Poor, homeless, ill, sinner--she was the face of God's love to all of them. And from what I've heard people say of Fr. Judge, he lived his life in much the same way.

The actual church procedure for declaring sainthood is ancient and complex, and I have a hard time believing that the formula somehow is able to distinguish the merely "very good" from the saint-worthy. And I don't know, so I don't speak on her behalf, but I find it hard to believe that it's something Mother Theresa would have concerned herself with. Her very ministry, focused as it was on the "lowest of the low, poorest of the poor" seems to argue against raising her, or Fr. Mychal, to some special status over and above the rest of us.

Ooohhh, don't mention Mother Teresa around Christopher Hitchens. He'll get REALLY mad.



The canonization process is not without controversy. Here in California, the Mother Church tried/went through (?) with the sainthood application for Father Junipero Sierra--I think that's the name, sorry, I've spent the last 1/2 hour in the Jeremy Shockey thread pouring out scorn on the hetero tourists there and I'm fried--and Latino/Native Indian groups were displeased to say the least. Seems there's long been whispers about the long dead Father being a colonialist oppressor who beat and, well, oppressed, the natives as easily as he breathed, apparently. A pack of lies, I'm sure.

From my understanding of the cannonization process, it involves both the acts of the individual during life, and any miracles that can be ascribed to that person after death. That is, someone has to pray to an individual to intercede with God on a specific problem, and the church determines if a miracle then occurred. This is part of the 5-year waiting period, I think (I am working with high school religion class memories here, so I may be incorrect).

However, it will be interesting to see how the Vatican's policies towards gay priests 1) change over the next 5 years and 2) effect the potential cannonization of Fr. Judge.

There are a number of voices in the Vatican, and they seem to be floating "trial balloons," who are arguing that gays cannot be priests. Many have said we cannot obtain the sacrament of holy orders, which implies all ordinations of gay priests are flawed and these men are not really priests. I have joked with my sister about how she likely will have to get married again if gay men can't be priests, but the Vatican will have a difficult time arguing for Fr. Judge's sainthood, if on the other hand they are declaring that gay men, even if they are celibate, cannot be priests.