Old St. Patrick's Church, 700 W. Adams St., will be the site of a Sept. 11 tribute to Fr. Mychal Judge at 6-8:30 p.m.
The Gay & Lesbian Outreach of Old St. Patrick's Church, Dignity Chicago and the Legacy Project will commemorate the tragedy of 9/11 and remember Judge, who has been called "The Saint of 9/11."
Judge's bronze memorial marker will soon join Chicago's "Legacy Walk" outdoor LGBT history museum.
The event is free, but seating is limited. Call 312-648-1021 by Monday, Sept. 8, to RSVP.
See "9/11 Memorial Tribute to Fr. Mychal Judge" on Facebook.
Mychal Judge was a Catholic priest who was a chaplain to the New York City Fire Department starting in 1992. He was serving in that capacity that he was killed, a death marked as the first certified during the 9/11 attacks in New York City.
As Wikipedia notes, "In New York, Judge was also well known for ministering to the homeless, the hungry, recovering alcoholics, people with AIDS, the sick, injured, and grieving, immigrants, gays and lesbians and those alienated by the Church and society. … When he anointed a man who was dying of AIDS, the man asked him, 'Do you think God hates me?' Judge just picked him up, kissed him, and silently rocked him in his arms. Even before his death, many considered Judge to be a living saint for his extraordinary works of charity and his deep spirituality. While praying, he would sometimes 'become so lost in God, as if lost in a trance, that he'd be shocked to find several hours had passed.' Judge's former spiritual director, the former Jesuit, John J. McNeill, observed that, 'He achieved an extraordinary degree of union with the divine. We knew we were dealing with someone directly in line with God.'"
Judge, a longtime member of the Dignity Catholic gay group, was also a celibate gay man. As Wikipedia notes: "According to fire commissioner Thomas Von Essen: 'I actually knew about his homosexuality when I was in the Uniformed Firefighters Association. I kept the secret, but then he told me when I became commissioner five years ago. He and I often laughed about it, because we knew how difficult it would have been for the other firemen to accept it as easily as I had. I just thought he was a phenomenal, warm, sincere man, and the fact that he was gay just had nothing to do with anything.'"
See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mychal_Judge .