| Notre Dame gay alumni, Phil Donahue honor Fr.
Mychal Judge
By CHUCK COLBERT
New York
As dozens of gay Notre Dame alumni gathered here for a reunion
weekend, the Republican mayor of New York City recognized them, a gesture that
has not yet been made by school officials.
The greetings and best wishes from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg were
read at a gathering of the Gay and Lesbian Alumni of the University of Notre
Dame and St. Mary’s College, as the group presented a posthumous award to
Fr. Mychal Judge, the Franciscan chaplain who died accompanying firefighters
into the lobby of the north tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
More than 100 people, including nearly 50 lesbian and gay alumni
of the two schools, attended the Sept. 28 event. The Gay and Lesbian Alumni
group, which was formed in 1993, has over 750 members. University officials
have not recognized it as an official alumni group.
The Thomas A. Dooley Award that was bestowed on Judge is given to
persons “who, through their faith-based backgrounds centered in gospel
values, have demonstrated personal courage, compassion and commitment to
advance the human rights and civil rights of lesbian and gay
Americans.”
The annual award is named for a gay graduate of Notre Dame who
achieved fame in the 1950s as a physician who established charitable hospitals
to assist the needy of Vietnam and Laos. Dooley died of cancer at the age of 34
in 1961.
Phil Donahue, a Notre Dame alumnus, 2000 Dooley Award recipient
and MSNBC-TV host, presented this year’s award. Accepting for Judge was
Brendan Fay, member of New York’s Lavender and Green Alliance of gay and
lesbian Irish-Americans, and a close friend of Judge.
Donahue said, “It’s clear that by any brief review of
his life, Fr. Judge exemplified the very best of male religious. He was a
worker priest who, like Tom Dooley, had to die before we could celebrate the
totality of his humanness.”
In his acceptance, Fay said, “Mychal Judge chose to follow a
path of honesty and openness in life, both as a Catholic priest and a gay man.
His ministry of compassion and his quest for peace and reconciliation will be
an inspiration for generations to come.”
Fay recalled Judge’s decision to participate in an
all-inclusive St. Patrick’s Day celebration. “He joined us in
Franciscan habit, prayed with us, blessed many along the way, including some
who came to jeer,” Fay said.
After his death on 9/11, Judge became a gay-rights hero. President
Bush invoked his name in signing the Mychal Judge Act, which grants death
benefits to the beneficiaries, including same-sex partners, of public safety
workers killed in the line of duty.
The Notre Dame alumni group also bestows a $1,000 gift. This
year’s donation went to the Ali Forney House, a homeless shelter for gay
youth.
Related Web site
Gay and Lesbian Alumni of the
University of Notre Dame and St. Mary’s
College
www.galandsmc.org
National Catholic Reporter, October 18,
2002
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