Concerned Woman, Dennis Lynch, has issued an article declaring that Father Mychal Judge was definitely not gay. Judge was the priest who died on 9/11/01 in service to victims of the terrorist attack and the firefighters that were attempting to rescue them and who became known as a hero.
Lynch bases the bold assertion on the following:
Prior to Father Mike’s death, everyone who knew him for any length of time would never describe him as a homosexual. In fact, never has even one homosexual activist ever provided evidence that Father Mike was “gay.” Yet, in newspapers immediately after the funeral mass, Brendan Fay was quoted saying that Father Mike was a homosexual. Fay arranged a media event where many people spoke of Father Mike’s concern for the homosexual community and claimed Father Mike was “gay.” This was news to me, and I knew Father Mike for nearly a decade.
The Media Lies About Father Mike
After the first series of newspapers stories reported that Father Mike was a homosexual, suddenly politicians were standing up in Congress lamenting the death of “Father Mike, the gay priest.” Concerned that Father Mike was being used by homosexual activists, I began to contact many people who knew him for as long or longer than I did. I wanted the truth about Father Mike to be published. Not one of these longtime friends every heard or saw anything that Father Mike did that would indicate he was homosexual. I personally spent weeks at a time with Father Mike where he and I spoke about many personal matters. Not once was there even a suggestion that Father Mike was “gay.” He was a celibate Catholic priest and nothing more.
That is the extent of Lynch’s argument.
Lynch’s, like so much of the anti-gay crowd, bases his argument on a distorted logic: if you can’t prove something is true, then that proves it’s false. He presents nothing to support the idea that Judge was not gay, simply that there wasn’t proof enough for him. He doesn’t claim that “there’s inadequate information to determine his orientation” but states as fact that Judge was NOT gay.
Based on the tone of the article, I find it highly unlikely that Judge, or anyone else, would consider coming out to Lynch. The rest of the article is an attack on Brendan Fay and other “homosexual activists”. It is quite clear that he views gay people in a very negative light.
Further, to Lynch, Judge’s homosexuality existed only if heard or seen. A celibate gay priest doesn’t fit into the definition of homosexuality as undestood by the Concerned Women and the anti/ex-gay movement. Because Lynch wasn’t “living a homosexual lifestyle” they don’t have language to reconcile his being gay.
In contrast, the New York Times quotes a close personal friend of Judge:
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.”
Mr. Von Essen, a married, practicing Catholic who said that Father Judge came out to him years before his death, added, “To sacrifice your life to God and try to do so much good every day and to be prevented from doing that – it’s no wonder they can’t get anyone to join the church to become a priest or a nun.”
On one hand there is the personal testimony of Von Essen, a reputable person without an obvious agenda, that Judge declared himself to be a gay man. On the other is a assertion that Judge was not gay based a vacuum of information. It is not difficult to decide whom to believe.
If you are still having doubt, consider too that Father Judge was a longtime member of Dignity, a gay Catholic group, and was a longtime activist for gay rights. The Times also reports that he had told several friends, both gay and straight, that he was a celibate homosexual.
Lynch did state something in his closing paragraph with which I agree:
Although homosexual activists have hijacked this truth, I know that, from heaven, Father Mike would want you to know the truth about him. He would also want you to pray for those who bear false witness.
I believe that Father Judge would have wanted the truth to be known. He would also want you to pray for those who bear false witness.
Those who make statements about that which they do not have evidence and based wholly on what they choose to believe, by definition are bearing false witness.
Feel free to pray for Dennis Lynch.
Are you freakin’ KIDDING ME?!
Oh, so to CWA… a HEROIC gay man, particularly a priest…is only that if he’s ‘not really gay’.
Well, Father Judge is dead, and how he died only has meaning to these people if he, posthumously, was never gay.
I don’t know whether to weep, or throw up.
The arrogance of such heterosexuals is beyond disgusting.
I’m going to see a play in a week or two called
“Pebble in My Shoe” about the life of Bishop Shelby Spong.
As a member of the GLAAD theater committee, I can attend such productions and sometimes with a friend for free.
The Bishop and his wife Christine, have stood up for gays and lesbians for decades.
Sometimes…the courage and true meaning of Christian brotherhood and love stands up and shouts for itself.
The lives of Father Judge and Bishop Spong attest to that.
“Concerned Woman, Dennis Lynch”
That’s priceless.
And now I have to try to get tea out of my keyboard. Thanks, XGW! 😀
Wow good job. Where’d you find this article? I don’t remember getting this last night in our distribution list.
Dan, I sometimes peruse the Agape Press
you sure it’s on the Agapepress? I read that every day.
sorry, it was actually lifesite that referred me to the concerned women
https://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/sep/05092805.html
ROTFL
Concerned Woman, Dennis Lynch….
Unless I’m missing something, “Dennis” is a name usually used with males. Did he mean Denise?
Of course, there is also Robert Knight and Peter LaBarbera, who are also affiliated with the Confused Women In America.
One could, and probably should, write a whole book detailing the lies of the religious right.
“Lying for Jesus” might be a good title, a godly title actually.
raj, yes, Robert Knight and Peter LaBarbera are also Concerned Women.
It’s funny. Most of the press from the Concerned Women have people who’s pictures look like men and who have male names. But who am I to argue that the Concerned Women aren’t women.
Perhaps they feel they are women deep down on the inside.
Now if you want to call them “transgendered” fire away.
“Ladies” is more like it. “Women” sounds much to feminist!
Concerned Ladies of America
A GAY SAINT, IN FACT
The evidence that Father Mychal Judge self-identified as gay, as homosexual, though chaste and celibate, is irrefutable. Here’s a summary of the facts on this issue.
Dennis Lynch claimed in June, 2002 that Mychal Judge couldn’t possibly have been homosexual because he was so saintly a man. Plus Judge had never told Lynch he was gay. That was the extent of Lynch’s proof. Lynch charged that gay activists and liberal media had fabricated the story in order to “hijack” Judge’s memory to advance a gay agenda.
But soon after Lynch’s 2002 article, former FDNY commissioner Tom Von Essen publicly confirmed that Fr. Judge had “come out” to him as gay several years before 9/11, and they had discussed this several times. Von Essen recently reaffirmed this, citing Judge as one reason why the Vatican should not purge good, celibate gay priests.
Then other friends of Judge, including Fr. Brian Carroll and several priests, also confirmed that Mychal had identified himself to them as a gay person. (We’re speaking of orientation only; by all accounts he was faithful to his priestly vows).
These are not “homosexual activists” with an “agenda”. These are many of Mychal’s closest friends bearing witness to a truth he told them about himself.
Then Michael Ford’s biography was released in late 2002 (“Father Mychal Judge: An Authentic American Hero”: Paulist Press). In it, Judge is quoted many times as acknowledging his orientation. For example, “Look at who we are as gay people at this moment in history, being a gift for the church, being agents of change in both church and society.”
It’s understandable why Judge didn’t come out to the Dennis Lynches of the world, with their visceral reactions and deep prejudices. Mychal picked and chose when and to whom to come out. But in the end it’s clear that Fr. Mychal Judge was selectively, if not generally, open about his gay orientation and self-identity.
PS: Most important in this story — Mychal Judge transcended the toxic shame inflicted by the ignorant on gay people; he came to embrace his gay quality as an inborn, God-given gift. Thus freed to love himself and love God, Mychal achieved extraordinary intimacy with Christ. A true Christ figure in life and in death, he encouraged others to love themselves and each other the way God loves us.
for more info on Father Mychal, visit:
https://www.SaintMychal.com