c. 2006 Religion News Service

NEW YORK _ In one of the lasting images of the horror from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Rev. Mychal Judge lay limp in the arms of his beloved firefighters, his skin covered in the ash from the World Trade Center. In this snapshot in time, Father Judge’s last moments on earth were immortalized on film.

“This is how Mychal would have prayed to have the last day of his life transpire, doing what he loved,” former Franciscan friar Brian Carroll says in a new documentary about Judge, “Saint of 9/11.”

“He would have been nowhere else on the face of the earth than with those folks. Mychal was not a hero in 9/11. He was doing his job.”

Now, nearly five years after Judge’s death, filmmaker Glenn Holsten has devoted an entire documentary to preserving the memory of the late fire department chaplain. “Saint of 9/11,” recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival here, and it will be seen at film festivals around the country and in Toronto this coming summer.

Despite its title, the film is a portrait of a man known for his humanity: a recovering alcoholic and a gay man in a conservative church, who touched the lives of those he served and befriended in his daily life.

Judge was called to the church at the early age of 15, received into the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor in Paterson, N.J., and later ordained as a priest at age 27.

Yet even as he vowed to serve his God and his church, Judge was wrestling with alcoholism. In fact, his drinking began as a teenager during his years training to be a priest.

Still, as Judge struggled with alcohol, he managed to touch the lives of those who also struggled. He had known hardship in his life: born into a family of poor Irish immigrants, Judge had lost his father at the age 6.

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In the late ’60s, Judge campaigned for civil rights at his parish in New Jersey, losing his job for his support of a black family and their move into the largely white neighborhood where he worked. In 1974, he convinced a man holding his own family hostage at gunpoint to end the standoff without violence.

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In the late ’70s, Judge began attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and would wrestle that addiction for the rest of his life, maintaining his sobriety.

“Mychal often cited the A.A. slogan that talked about being on a path of progress, not perfection, and applied it to life,” said Brendan Fay, co-producer of the documentary and an activist for the gay community, as well as a friend to Judge, in an interview. “A.A. offered a whole new way of life for him. It offered him a safe place where he made a whole new circle of friends. It became a real key to his spiritual life.”

No matter where Judge’s travels took him _ whether to Belfast for a meeting of international leaders, or to the White House to meet with President Bill Clinton _ he would always search out an A.A. meeting to attend.

But something even more fundamental _ his sexuality _ would often call into conflict Judge’s role as a Catholic priest with the reality of being a gay man. Produced by gay rights advocacy group Equality Forum, “Saint of 9/11” also speaks to Judge’s struggle as a self-avowed gay man.

“Mychal Judge was selectively open about his sexuality,” said Fay. “He knew the reality of being a priest, and the consequences, and he knew he would not have been able to function as a priest had he been out as a gay man.”

Throughout his life Judge publicly supported the gay community, organizing the St. Francis AIDS ministry in 1986, and marching in a gay-inclusive St. Patrick’s Day parade in Queens 14 years later, proudly wearing the brown Franciscan habit that defined his life’s vocation. When the gay Catholic group Dignity were evicted from Catholic churches, Judge continued to preside over services at a gay community center.

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As he got older, Judge entrusted more people with the fact that he was gay, often serving as an empathetic ear to fellow members of the gay community.

“Mychal was always particularly sensitive to the needs of his gay brothers and sisters,” Fay said, “… and he was always trying to find a way to be a bridge across divided communities.”

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Yet it was his role as a New York Fire Department chaplain that made Judge so well-known and beloved. In 1992, Judge replaced deceased Rev. Julian Deeken as interim chaplain, a position he would accept officially in 1996.

For nearly a decade as chaplain, Judge baptized the children of firefighters, presided over their weddings and prayed for them as they battled blazes. In July of 1996, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani called on Judge to organize the pastoral care for the families of the victims of the TWA Flight 800 explosion off Long Island.

“Father Judge was a tremendous source of strength and compassion for the department,” said Thomas Von Essen, the New York Fire Department commissioner on Sept. 11, who last saw Judge in the lobby of the north tower just minutes before he died.

“He had the ability to almost stay positive with families that had lost a loved one … We couldn’t have lost him at a worse time, and we couldn’t have used him more.”

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In the last act of his professional and personal lives, Judge rushed to the scene of the burning World Trade Center. While reciting last rites to fellow fallen firefighters, Judge was killed.

In that well-known photo, Judge’s lifeless, serene body is carried to nearby St. Peter’s Church. Later, he was brought to Engine 1/Ladder 24 across from the midtown Franciscan friary where he lived.

“The world came to know Mychal in his death,” Holsten said. “The real joy of making this film is bringing his life to the public.”

KRE/RB END HERPICH