Priest’s life of giving honored in ‘He Said Yes’

SECAUCUS, N.J. (AP) — Kelly Ann Lynch, like so many others in the Rev. Mychal Judge’s vast congregation without walls, was devastated by word of the fire chaplain’s death in the shadows of the World Trade Center.

“Those first few weeks, it was hard to see anything good,” says the Pennsylvania mother of four. “It just felt so dark and so sad and so empty.”

Time passed, until the darkness gave way to a bright idea. Miss Lynch — whose father once served as an altar boy for Father Judge — became consumed with turning the martyred priest’s life into a children’s book, keeping his message of love alive for future generations.

“He Said Yes: The Story of Father Mychal Judge” — a biography timed to arrive with Tuesday’s sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks when four hijacked jetliners killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, at the Pentagon in Arlington and in a field in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania — is an illustrated 32-page walk in the Franciscan priest’s sandals. M. Scott Oatman did the artwork.

“He left behind a legacy for all of us,” Miss Lynch said recently over breakfast at a New Jersey hotel, a short hop from the East Rutherford parish where her family first met Father Judge. “I took the most important parts of his story and tried to simplify it. His story was meant to be shared.”

The biography starts with his birth in Brooklyn, where he had a job shining shoes to help his widowed mother make ends meet. It follows him into the seminary, through his ordination, to parishes in Massachusetts, New Jersey and finally Manhattan.

Miss Lynch, in a simple, straightforward style, details how Father Judge picked up congregants for his far-flung flock at every stop: suburban families and the homeless; AIDS patients and alcoholics; firefighters and a paralyzed police officer; the loved ones of those killed aboard TWA Flight 800.

The tale ends on September 11, 2001, when Father Judge became the first official victim of the terrorist attack that killed 2,750 persons in the twin towers. His dying soon gave life to Miss Lynch’s remembrance.

Those touched by the peripatetic priest during his 68 years greeted word of the Paulist Press publication with warm reviews.

“It sounds sweet — a lovely idea,” said actor and author Malachy McCourt. “Anything that perpetuates the goodness of this man is fine with me.”

Brendan Fay, a homosexual activist and friend of the priest, recalled how easily “Father Mike” bonded with children.

“He wrote notes and letters to children at their baptism,” Mr. Fay recalled. “A few who saved them now treasure them with the affection of relics. … Kids who never knew Father Judge can now read his story.”

Miss Lynch’s ties with Father Judge predate her birth. He counseled her family in good times and in crisis — the sudden death of her grandfather, the death of a 2-month-old sibling, her own daughter’s lifesaving liver transplant.

“He made you feel that you were the one special person in his life,” says Miss Lynch, 39. “What we’ve come to realize, six years later, is that he did that for everybody. He was a constant presence.”

Besides her book, Miss Lynch runs the nonprofit Mychal’s Message, which provides aid to the dispossessed. Proceeds from “He Said Yes” will also benefit the homeless.

Miss Lynch says getting the book in print was a long process. Plans fell through with one publisher, and talks with an agent moved slowly. She was on the verge of self-publishing, just to get the book out, when one of Father Judge’s fellow Franciscans steered her to Paulist Press.

Everything clicked, and, as Miss Lynch hoped, the book was released in time for the anniversary of the attacks.

Possessed with a dry Irish wit, Father Judge would have enjoyed the book’s title, Mr. Fay says. The Franciscan priest’s instinctive “yes” made him indispensable to many, but it was also wearing him out — much like his phone answering machines, which routinely broke down from overuse every six months.

“It was his gift, and it connected him to thousands,” Mr. Fay says of the late yes-man, “but it also wore him out. The title would make Mychal laugh.”