Admirers of Fallen 9/11 Hero Disdain Vatican's Plan to Bar Gays as Priests

[kweerwolf]

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."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/nyregion/25judge.html?ex=1128225600&en=f625912af26bba0d&ei=5099&partner=TOPIX

[sakabatou]

1. Still stuck in the Dark Ages

[davidinalameda]

2. a gay priest to me is like a gay Republican

you're both supporting institutions that want to destroy them

[closeupready]

3. Yeah, I agree.

And you often hear the same thing: "working for change from within the system."

'Cept with pukes, it's all about them personally - they might be gay, but they mostly still don't care about anybody but themselves. With priests, it's more of a kind of game of "trying to be a good boy" thing, which makes it especially sad.

[bluedawg12]

4. It's institutionalized homophobia- beyond that

who cares what they do?

But,it matters only as so far millions of Catholics will now feel liberated to be even more hostile to gays in the secular world.