The Star-Ledger The last rites of Father Mychal There is a thin line between remembering something and reliving it, and those Americans who are still bruised by 9/11 are well aware of the distinction. But if you think you can't bear to see another World Trade Center movie, you should still see the new documentary, "Saint of 9/11." Perhaps that's because although the film is about one of that tragic day's casualties -- Father Mychal Judge, a New York Fire Department chaplain -- it's about much more than that. Yes, Judge was a famous symbol of that day -- iconic, even, in the picture of him being carried, comatose, from the wreckage, struck down as he was ministering to others. But he was not defined by that day any more than he was summed up by anything else. Irish-American, recovering alcoholic, gay man, Franciscan priest -- all of those figured into who he was. None of it summed him up, easily or completely. Nicely directed by Glenn Holsten, the film mixes newsreel footage and new interviews to tell the story of Judge, a Brooklyn-born son of Irish immigrants who entered the seminary at 15. Naturally drawn to the humble order of St. Francis, he eventually served in parishes in West Milford and East Rutherford. But Judge was -- in every sense of the word -- not a parochial man. And so he left the New Jersey suburbs behind to do work among the terminally ill AIDS patients in Manhattan hospitals, and to minister to the city firefighters who regularly risked their lives in hopes of saving others. It was his work among the firefighters that led to his death on 9/11; it was the drama of his death on that day that led to his secret being exposed. Although Judge was well known in the gay Catholic community, his own orientation was his own business. For Judge, the confessional box was also a closet. For Judge's superiors, of course, the only truly relevant question was and is whether he honored his vows; technically, it's not being homosexual that's the offense, but having homosexual sex. The issue of Judge's chastity, however, is one "Saint of 9/11" prefers not to address. Partly that's because it functions as an uncritical eulogy; partly that's because it's funded by a gay-rights group that would prefer a simple, positive hero. To say that Judge was in any kind of sexual relationship would tarnish his image as a priest; to say he eschewed sexuality would make him less useful as a proud gay icon. But Judge was not uncomplicated. He was a spiritual counselor who struggled with temptation, a temperance advocate who fought his own battle with alcohol, a selfless mystic who still took a vain pleasure in his hair and his clothes and his shiny fire-department car with its flashing lights. Was he the saint that the movie calls him -- and that some people are lobbying to have him declared? That's officially for the Vatican to declare. But he was, by all accounts, a good and loving and selfless man. And in these times, that can be a powerful miracle in itself.
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