Books like Father Mychal Judge: An Authentic American Hero

This is the story of another flawed hero which is perhaps why he is an authentic one. I had never heard of him prior to a few months ago and indeed I don't suppose his story would ever have been written were it not for the horror of 9/11. He was the catholic priest who is recorded as the first fatality of the collapse of the twin towers. He died whilst ministering in the shadow of the disaster as the two buildings teetered on the brink of collapse. In his death, he became a symbol of something noble and brave but in this account that Michael Ford has drawn together we see how Mychal Judge's unique gifts were played out and used in the service of the kingdom and for the most vulnerable and the voiceless way before that fateful morning.He was a publicity seeking, vain bloke who wanted all attention to be on himself and would use his position to achieve notice and acclaim; at the same time , he would drive hundreds of miles to sit with and console those who were mourning and nobody would know he was doing it, he would write letter after letter to those who were sad and lonely and felt lost and rejected, he would use peoples generosity to himself to assuage the sufferings of others. He would entertain and encourage, he would exasperate and exhaust in equal measure and I think he would be one of those people who would light up a room if you were in the mood to be lit up but might drive you to drink if you were in a less 'light' mood.He was a gay catholic priest working in New York at the time of the beginning of the HIV/Aids crisis in the 1980's. He was a recovering alcoholic who attended AA meetings almost every day for the 22 years of his sobriety. There was thus a strange mix of humility and arrogance which oddly kept a balance here. He was vain and self focused but could sweep all that aside if others needed him, he was confident in himself but very conscious of how easy this edifice would collapse with one bad decision, one swift short thrown back in a bar. Thus he knew his strengths , he knew his weakness.His courage as a gay priest in the catholic church cannot really be under-estimated. Though he was not openly active as a gay man he used his empathy and his own experiences of rejection by the institution to communicate to suffering victims that they were still important to God and welcome in his Church. He raised his head gingerly above certain parapets but raise them he did . His act of courage on 9/11 was outstanding but then so were the many other firefighters and police who died caring and trying to save on that day; What makes him so striking is the fact that he used his weaknesses and frailties to enhance and encourage others on their journeys way before. As a sober man he supported others to sobriety, as a gay man he loved and supported men who felt rejected and lost, as one who always wanted to be at the centre of attention he used this high profile reputation to gain publicity and help for others. Weaknesses and frailties..........as they say 'Ordinary people doing extraordinary things.' Michael Ford wrote this book very swiftly after the tragedy of 9/11; it is very noticeable that he does not get to talk to any close members of Judge's family and very few close friends or associates. Presumably this was because there was a closing of ranks to attempt to keep the illusion of some sort of misplaced perfection safe. This seems a shame, Michael Ford evidently admires the Mychal Judge he discovered and appeared only to want to share that admiration with the world. Indeed I did find, from time to time, that Mychal Judge appeared to be given the benefit of the doubt in a goodly number of situations where I would perhaps have placed a more self-centred slant on his behaviour than did Ford. It is a sadness that this kindly attempt at showing this courageous and good man to the world was, to an extent, hamstrung by a short sighted 'no comment' type reaction. Ironic when you consider that the one thing you could be sure with Fr Mychal Judge (and I never did satisfactorily work out why he had that odd pretentious spelling of Michael) is the very last phrase that would issue from his mouth would be 'NO Comment".