By Gina Christian
ST. LOUIS (OSV News) – Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen – the 20th-century theologian, evangelizer, Catholic communications pioneer, teacher and preacher – is now Blessed Fulton J. Sheen.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, a pro-prefect for the Holy See’s Dicastery for Evangelization and papal delegate, pronounced the Church’s declaration on Archbishop Sheen’s holiness of life and witness to Jesus Christ at a Sept. 24 Mass celebrated in The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis.
To the applause of pilgrims, Cardinal Tagle described Archbishop Sheen as a “son of Illinois, son of the United States of America” and “indeed, son of the world.” 
Hundreds of clergy, including dozens of bishops and cardinals, had processed into the arena for the Mass as choirs, accompanied by an orchestra, performed a succession of hymns. The priests’ vestments were embroidered with “JMJ,” Archbishop Sheen’s signature dedication to Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
The location had been selected by Archbishop Sheen’s home Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, to accommodate the number of pilgrims who arrived for the beatification and its surrounding events. Around 50,000 people were in attendance, according to organizers.
During a press conference a few hours prior to the Mass, Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria said that almost every U.S. state and several additional nations were represented by pilgrims. A number of the faithful hailed from Italy, Poland and Brazil, he said.
Close to 90 bishops, some 1,000 priests, an estimated 1,600 men and women religious, and almost 250 deacons were present, added Bishop Tylka, who wore Archbishop Sheen’s pectoral cross. Among the concelebrating prelates was Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

The beatification – a papal act affirming an individual’s presence in heaven is worthy of belief – officially occurred between the liturgy’s Penitential Rite and the Gloria. Bishop Tylka made a formal request for Archbishop Sheen’s beatification to Cardinal Tagle. 
A short biography of Archbishop Sheen, who was born in El Paso, Illinois, in 1895 and died in New York in 1979, was read by Archbishop Sheen’s great-nephew, Paul Cunningham, after which Cardinal Tagle proclaimed the apostolic letter from Pope Leo XIV declaring the beatification in Latin. Bishop Tylka then read the letter in English, as applause followed both. 
With the papal decree’s public proclamation, Archbishop Sheen became formally counted among the Church’s “beati,” from the Latin word for “blessed.”
James Fulton Engstrom – whose revival from stillbirth in 2010, attributed to Archbishop Sheen’s intercession, was formally declared the miracle that moved Archbishop Sheen to beatification – processed with his parents and siblings to present a major relic of Archbishop Sheen during the liturgy.
Enclosed in a special case called a reliquary, the relic is Archbishop Sheen’s mandible, or jawbone, chosen because it represents the archbishop’s tremendous gifts as an orator, teacher and evangelist.
As part of the beatification, a portrait of a haloed Blessed Fulton Sheen was also unveiled. In the image, he is notably holding a piece of chalk, which he famously used – along with a blackboard – during his Emmy-winning television show, “Life Is Worth Living.” 
The image was also simultaneously unveiled in the Diocese of Peoria at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception.
The first reading from the beatification Mass, Isaiah 52:7-10, was delivered in Spanish, with the second reading, 2 Corinthians 4:1-2, 5-7, proclaimed in Portuguese, while the Gospel taken from Mark 16:15-20 was proclaimed in English. The prayers of the faithful were offered in a variety of other languages, illustrating both the universal character of the Church and also the missionary mindset of Blessed Fulton J. Sheen, who served as the U.S. director for the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
In his homily, Cardinal Tagle praised Archbishop Sheen as a “storyteller of Jesus” and “a “missionary who digs deep into the heart of the poor to meet Jesus there.” 
The cardinal noted then-Bishop Sheen’s passionate advocacy for the poor during the Second Vatican Council. During the 1964 discussions on the document “Ad Gentes,” on the missionary activity of the Church, then-Bishop Sheen asked his brother bishops to “affirm” the notion of poverty and the bishops who came from poor and suffering parts of the Church.
“As only a wounded Christ could convert a doubting Thomas, so only a Church wounded by poverty can convert a doubting world,” he said. 
Cardinal Tagle commended Archbishop Sheen for making genuine connections with the people he met and to whom he preached and ministered.
“The missionary evangelizer is blessed by the communion with persons and peoples, especially the poor and vulnerable, and this is communion in the name of Jesus Christ,” he said.
Cardinal Tagle shared how Archbishop Sheen told a friend, who asked why he became a priest, that he was called to share the Gospel and tell the story of Jesus. 
“I never tire of telling it; I never tire of improving my telling of it. I love my calling,” Archbishop Sheen said, as Cardinal Tagle recounted.
In remarks after Communion, Bishop Tylka urged all attendees to pray for Archbishop Sheen’s canonization, leading them together in a prayer for that intention.
“It is God who has given the Church the extraordinary witness of the man we may now call Blessed Fulton J. Sheen,” he said.
Thanking the many prelates involved in the Mass, including Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski, whose archdiocese hosted the beatification, and representatives from the Archdiocese of New York, Diocese of Rochester and the Pontifical Mission Societies, Bishop Tylka noted, “Your presence today is a beautiful reminder that while Peoria is incredibly proud to call Fulton Sheen one of our own, he is a gift to the whole Church.”
Bishop Tylka also expressed his gratitude to Archbishop Sheen’s family, individuals and benefactors involved in preparations and liturgy, and the faithful who made the pilgrimage to attend the beatification. 
“Fulton Sheen has left us a great legacy,” he said. “He fearlessly proclaimed the Gospel in challenging cultural times. He supported the Church’s missions throughout the world. He won tens of thousands of converts and preached to millions. His time of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament was the source of his insight into the Son of God. He used every gift God gave him for one purpose: to bring people to Christ. And his legacy is now ours.”
Following the Mass, attendees were invited to remain in prayer to venerate Archbishop Sheen’s relics.

(Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina. Maria Wiering, senior managing editor of OSV News, contributed to this article.)

By Jay Sorgi
(OSV News) – For half a century, the National Association of Pastoral Musicians helped define much of the sound of Mass and other sacramental experiences throughout the United States, teaching and empowering musicians to make music a spiritual food for tens of millions every Sunday.
They plan to do the same and further enrich the life of the church for another 50 years, but under a new name as of Oct. 6: The National Association of Catholic Church Musicians.
“We want them to have an encounter with God. We are that instrument (which) hopefully the Holy Spirit is working through, so that the people that come to worship have an encounter through the music,” said Anna Betancourt, NACCM’s vice chair, who led cathedral choirs in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Diocese of Anaheim, California, before a recent move to Texas.
“It’s wonderful to have all the musical skills and to learn the notes. How are we going to make it beautiful? How are we going to pray these words? That to me is key,” she told OSV News.
The group received a special blessing from an American Catholic whose faith life was fostered by Catholic music, Pope Leo XIV, through special greetings shared earlier for its national convention in July.
“The Holy Father therefore hopes that your efforts will enable the Church to continue to offer reverent and dignified worship in the parishes, schools and other institutions where you serve. In this way, he is confident you will help American Catholics to sing of the steadfast love and mercies of God in a continuous hymn of praise,” said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, in a letter to the NACCM.
Jennifer Kluge, the organization’s executive director, told OSV News the Second Vatican Council planted NACCM’s roots by opening up the musical worship experience to the congregation.
“We had this huge role to play. There was this brand new opportunity for congregational singing. The congregation for the first time ever, not only had the opportunity to participate musically in the liturgy, but actually had a responsibility and an obligation to participate,” she said. “Our members came to us saying, ‘How do we enliven this?’”
Amanda Bruce, NACCM’s senior associate director of marketing & communications, said that since 1976, NACCM answered that question by helping create frameworks for dioceses, archdioceses and parishes to find and nurture the life of pastoral musicians, and to incubate much of the music heard during Mass.
“We talk very often in leadership about how we so often minister (to) those who are celebrating the highs and the lows of their lives, weddings and funerals,” Bruce told OSV News.
“So many of the songs that so many Catholics bring to us in music ministry are often songs that premiered at our conferences,” she said. “Our association was a lot of the conduit for some of that music.”
NACCM Board Chair Meyer Chambers, a 38-year member who has sung or led music ministries in cathedrals, Newman centers and Black Catholic parishes from Boston to New Orleans, told OSV News he sees how the name change can help attract Catholics who share music outside the choir lofts on Sunday, whether it’s through Gregorian chant, guitar-folk or Gospel sound.
“We need to go out and proclaim this beautiful thing that God has given us,” he said, “this ability to make music to praise the Lord on the highways, the byways, the corners, the woods, everywhere, because that’s where you’ll find us.”

(Jay Sorgi writes for OSV News from Philadelphia.)

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo, Ohio, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, urged the faithful to mark Respect Life Month with prayer, deeper reflection and action.
Respect Life Month is observed every October by the U.S. Catholic Church. This year’s theme is Mary, Mother of Life.
“Our Blessed Mother is our model for upholding the sanctity of all human life in every stage and circumstance. We entrust all our efforts to protect mothers and babies to her motherly care, which we greatly need at this time,” Bishop Thomas said in a Sept. 29 statement.
“Today, with easier access to abortion pills, the abortion rate is tragically climbing, along with increased health risks,” he said.
The Trump administration has sought to pause multiple state lawsuits seeking to roll back Biden administration-era eased restrictions on mifepristone, a drug commonly used for first trimester abortion, but which is also used in some miscarriage care protocols.
Thus far the administration has left that regulation in effect while seeking to block those challenges, pending a promised FDA safety review, resulting in frustration from pro-life advocates.
“The Food and Drug Administration has enabled a nationwide mail-order abortion industry by allowing the abortion pill to be prescribed in telehealth appointments, sold both at neighborhood pharmacies and online, and often shipped in the mail, circumventing state laws that protect life in the womb,” Bishop Thomas said.
“This means that more women, many of whom have been misinformed about the nature and risks of the abortion pill, will have an abortion alone at home, without any medical supervision,” he continued. “It also sets up additional opportunities for exploitation by violent partners or human traffickers. These affronts to human dignity demand our response.”
Bishop Thomas’ statement echoed joint remarks he and Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, USCCB president, made in early August ahead of the Aug. 18 launch of a nationwide call to prayer and action to mobilize Catholics to address the rising abortion rate and the increased availability of an abortion-inducing drug.
“Every abortion involves the death of a child and harm to the mother. Now with easier access to abortion pills, the abortion rate is tragically climbing, along with increased health risks,” the prelates said.
In his Sept. 29 statement, Bishop Thomas thanked “the many thousands of Catholics across the country who have embraced the nationwide invitation to prayer and action on abortion pills.”
He said he wanted to ask the faithful to “continue our prayers and advocacy throughout the month of October” and invited them to visit the Respect Life Prayer and Action website, https://www.respectlife.org/abortion-pills.

By Kate Scanlon
After Tennessee officials failed in their Sept. 30 attempt to execute death row inmate Christa Gail Pike for a 1995 murder, a number of faith leaders, including Tennessee’s Catholic bishops, have called for her sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment.
The state’s Gov. Bill Lee also halted the one remaining execution for the rest of the year pending an investigation, he said.
Officials administered two doses of a lethal drug to Pike, but her attorneys told media outlets that she remained “alive and loudly snoring” after the attempted lethal injection and was later taken by ambulance from the prison to a hospital.
Pike, now 50, the first woman Tennessee planned to execute in 200 years, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 for beating, torturing and killing Colleen Slemmer, who was 19 at the time. Pike admitted to the murder, which she carried out with her then-boyfriend, who received a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

“Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State’s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective,” Lee said to The Associated Press.
But Richard Garnett, director of the Notre Dame Program on Church, State and Society, said in written comments, “The failed attempt to execute Christa Pike illustrates, yet again, the delusion that by making executions look more ‘medical,’ ‘technical’, or ‘scientific’ we are somehow changing what they are, namely, killings of helpless human beings – who have, to be sure, committed horrible crimes – by our governments, in our names.”
In a letter to Lee dated Oct. 1, Tennessee faith leaders, including the state’s Catholic bishops, urged him to commute Pike’s sentence to life imprisonment in the wake of the incident.
The letter said they “respectfully and urgently ask you to commute the death sentence of Christa Gail Pike and ensure that the State of Tennessee does not attempt to execute her again.”
They said, “Such an act does not deny justice. It declares that justice need not become vengeance and that the State of Tennessee can choose restraint, human dignity, and mercy.”
“We make this appeal mindful of the horrific murder of Colleen Slemmer and the immeasurable grief endured by her family and those who loved her,” the letter said. “Nothing in our request diminishes the gravity of that crime, the preciousness of Colleen’s life, or the legitimate responsibility of the state to hold those who commit violence accountable. Yet accountability need not require another death.”
Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, that advocates for the abolition of capital punishment in line with Catholic teaching, said in a statement, “We are stunned and bewildered by this unprecedented news.”
“We pray for Ms. Pike’s current condition, and we pray for the victim Colleen Slemmer’s family as this situation must surely be retraumatizing,” she said.
“For Tennessee to have two botched executions in a matter of months is beyond alarming. It is the epitome of ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ under the Eighth Amendment.”
Noting Lee’s suspension of executions for the rest of the year pending an investigation, Vaillancourt Murphy said, “We pray this is the needed wake up call for Gov. Lee – in fact, for everyone – to recognize the barbarism of capital punishment.”
“The Church teaches that the death penalty is ‘inadmissible’ because every human life is sacred, no matter the harm one has caused or suffered, and because we have more effective ways to protect society than to take another life,” Vaillancourt Murphy said.
The Tennessee Department of Correction said in a statement that it “followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office.”
“The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening,” the statement said. “Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility.”
Shortly before the scheduled execution, Pike’s lawyers filed last-minute challenges, arguing the courts did not consider Pike’s history of trauma from sexual abuse in her sentencing; however, the Supreme Court allowed the execution to proceed.
But Valliancourt Murphy said, “It is sobering to know that were Ms. Pike sentenced today, she would not receive the death penalty because of how young she was when she murdered Ms. Slemmer.”
“Ms. Pike’s case had already attracted particular attention for being the first woman to face execution in Tennessee for 200 years, for the almost three decades she has spent in solitary confinement and today remains alive, surviving a botched execution at 50 years old,” she continued.
The Catholic Church’s official magisterium opposes the use of capital punishment as a violation of the inherent sanctity of human life, and advocates for the practice’s abolition worldwide.
The late Pope Francis revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 2018 to clarify the church’s teaching that capital punishment is morally “inadmissible” in the modern world “because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”
Earlier this year, Pope Leo XIV delivered a video message to Catholic death penalty abolitionists marking 15 years since the abolition of the death penalty in his home state of Illinois.
“The Catholic Church has consistently taught that each human life, from the moment of conception until natural death, is sacred and deserves to be protected,” Pope Leo said in his April message. “Indeed, the right to life is the very foundation of every other human right.”

(Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.)

By Katie Yoder

Nicole Kristensen still remembers facing difficult births and struggling postpartum as a mom. Today, she draws from her experience to help other women before, during and after giving birth.

“Even though I struggled, having a community was the biggest thing, and that is a huge part of what I’m trying to achieve these days as a doula,” said the Catholic doula and coach, who serves communities in New York and Connecticut.

Kristensen, owner of Holystic Maternity Care, and other postpartum experts and Catholic leaders spoke with OSV News about the Church’s role in postpartum support and walking with new mothers who are struggling.

Their comments come at a time when mothers are speaking out about the difficulty of the postpartum experience amid the high-profile Massachusetts trial of Lindsay Clancy, which ended in a mistrial Sept. 4. The case brought greater awareness to postpartum psychosis, a serious maternal mental health disorder.

These experts agreed that the Church and Catholics have a responsibility to be involved in postpartum support as a pro-life issue. The Church is already present there, they said, but Catholics can do more. Many of them emphasized the importance of parish involvement.

While these experts came from different backgrounds and ministries, they wanted new moms who are struggling to know they are not alone.

“The Church belongs in the area of postpartum support because Jesus commands us to care for the most vulnerable, and postpartum women and their babies fit that description,” said Kat Talalas, assistant director for pro-life communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities.

– The landscape of postpartum care –

Today, several national resources exist for women who are struggling postpartum. Women with maternal mental health concerns can contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline. Other nonprofits that advocate for mothers postpartum include Postpartum Support International and the Policy Center for Maternal Health.

Maternal mental health disorders, also known as perinatal mental health disorders, are common and affect up to 1 in 5 families in the United States each year, according to the policy center. The center calls anxiety and depression the most common childbirth complications. At the same time, these kinds of disorders are not universally screened for or sufficiently treated.

Symptoms of postpartum depression include sadness, difficulty concentrating, difficulty enjoying favorite activities and difficulty in baby bonding, according to the center. Symptoms of maternal anxiety include extreme fear, worry and nervousness.

– A pro-life issue –

Experts agreed the Church should accompany new mothers, especially those who are struggling.

“During the months following childbirth all women take months, sometimes even years, to fully heal,” said Caroline Hartley, a family nurse practitioner and founder of Fiat Integrative Health, a practice that provides medical care and mental health services in Franklin, Tennessee. “Hormones collapse, sleep is disrupted and isolation is common. About 1 in 7 women experience postpartum depression, and nearly half are never diagnosed.”

The mother of seven added: “If Catholics disappear at that point, our pro-life witness is incomplete.”

Many of these experts and leaders identified postpartum support as a pro-life issue.

“It is absolutely imperative and I would say obligatory that the body of Christ be present to support postpartum mothers and families,” said Mary Haseltine, a Catholic doula and mother of seven.

Haseltine is also the founder of Made for This, which provides pregnancy, birth and postpartum resources, and the author of “Made for This: The Catholic Mom’s Guide to Birth.”

“Not only is this part of the general Gospel mandate to take care of those in need,” she said, “but if we as a Church are going to ask families to promise to be open to life as we do in our wedding vows and purport to be a people that value the dignity and beauty of every life and build a culture of life, it is essential.”

– A work in progress –

These experts recognized the Church’s involvement in postpartum support. They pointed to Catholic hospitals, pregnancy centers and doulas. They also named ministries such as Elizabeth Ministry International, a Catholic apostolate that supports women and families through the joys and challenges of the childbearing years, and Walking with Moms in Need, a parish-based initiative by the U.S. bishops that serves vulnerable pregnant and parenting women.

“While Walking with Moms is mostly geared towards low-income women, the resources in the inventory and the support offered by the parish could be offered to any mother who is struggling,” Talalas with the U.S. bishops said.

At least one-third of U.S. dioceses participate in Walking with Moms in Need and have parishes that participate, Talalas said, adding that the number is likely higher.

Parishes with Walking with Moms in Need ministries take active roles in supporting mothers postpartum. The ministry at Sts. Philip and James Parish in Exton, Pennsylvania, recently donated postpartum personal care supplies to The 4th Trimester Mommie, a maternal health nonprofit.

Wisconsin-based Elizabeth Ministry International currently has over 800 registered chapters. Members offer prayers, peer support, mentoring, educational materials, spiritual nourishment and inspirational resources.

Krys Crawley, executive director of Elizabeth Ministry International, said her organization hopes to have chapters established at every parish worldwide.

“Our Catholic understanding of human dignity tells us that both the mom and the child are infinitely valuable,” said Crawley, who is also the founder and executive director of Life’s Connection, a community health and education center that provides pregnancy and postpartum support.

Hartley said that Fiat and similar organizations embrace an integrated model where they care for both baby and mother. Catholic doulas such as Haseltine and Kristensen also support women before, during and after birth. Both provide free postpartum resources online.

Haseltine also offers a biblically-based plan for postpartum rest and a directory of Christian birthworkers to connect women with support. Kristensen provides an ebook to prepare for a peaceful postpartum and lists helpful postpartum supplies.

– A parish-centric solution –

These experts, however, said the Church can do more. Many encouraged parishes to take an active role. They recommended parishes start Walking with Moms in Need and Elizabeth Ministry chapters, or expand them if they already exist. Others suggested creating spaces where mothers can connect, build community and help one another.

Many advised creating meal trains and offering childcare for new mothers and growing families. They suggested regularly checking in on mothers and keeping a list of resources that could be useful to them.

“One of the biggest shifts the Church can make is to not treat postpartum struggle as a private problem, but proactively support moms,” Hartley said.

— ‘You are not failing the gift you have been given’ —

These experts also shared their advice for struggling mothers. They recommended mothers turn to their family, friends and parishes. Some advised praying. Many encouraged mothers to not be afraid or ashamed to reach out for help. They wanted mothers to know the Church and Catholic ministries want to accompany them.

“If you are a new mother and you are struggling, hear this: You are not a bad mother, and you are not failing the gift you have been given,” Hartley said.

“Loving your baby and feeling fog, dread, rage, emptiness or no bond can exist at the same time,” she added. “That does not mean you are ungrateful. It means your body and mind have been through something enormous, and they have not caught up.”

Hartley and others urged women who are struggling to tell their husbands, friends, priests, midwives, counselors and clinicians.

“You said yes to life and that yes still includes you and your needs,” she said. “You were never meant to carry this alone.”

(Katie Yoder is an OSV News correspondent. She writes from Maryland.)

By Kimberley Heatherington
The offering placed before the altar on Sept. 11, 2001, was unlike any ever seen at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Manhattan’s Financial District: the lifeless body of 68-year-old Franciscan friar and New York City Fire Department Chaplain Father Mychal Judge.

He was killed when the 110 stories of the World Trade Center’s south tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m., blasting debris into the adjacent north tower lobby where Father Judge was stationed. At the moment, he reportedly was repeatedly praying, “Jesus, please end this right now! God, please end this!” He was shortly afterward carried from the apocalyptic site.

Some four blocks away, St. Peter’s own roof had been struck by landing gear from one of two hijacked jets smashed into both towers that morning. Father Judge’s journey there was captured in an instantly iconic photo seen worldwide – dust-covered, slumped in a chair and already shockingly pale as he was carried by five men.

Since he lost his life, Father Judge – a friar for 47 years; a priest for 40 – has been hailed as a hero, suggested for sainthood, and praised as a selfless friend not only to first responders, but also to the poor, sick and forgotten of the Big Apple’s sometimes tough streets.

Ahead of the 25th anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack in recorded history, friends of Father Judge shared memories of his life and loss, and reflected on his legacy.

“People would often say about him, when you talk to him it was like you were the only person before him,” said Father Kevin Mullen, a Franciscan friar of the Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe and former president of Siena University in Loudonville, New York, where he currently teaches.

“He engaged you fully; he was not looking around for who he could talk to next. He was fully present to you,” Father Mullen told OSV News. “And that’s what made a difference to a lot of people about Mychal Judge – they could talk to him, bare their souls, share their good news, share their bad news. And he was going to be there for them.”

– ‘He was there. He was present’ –
On the morning of 9/11, Father Mullen, stationed in a parish approximately 15 miles from midtown Manhattan, was responsible for a funeral liturgy.

“I was aware before I started the funeral that the first tower had collapsed,” he recalled. “And when I finished the funeral, I was told the second tower had collapsed. So I knew things were getting worse.”

That afternoon, he heard a radio announcement reporting an injured fire chaplain at the World Trade Center.

“And my gut said, ‘That’s Mychal Judge,’” Father Mullen said. “He was right across the street from a fire station that responded immediately.” The church where Father Judge ministered and the friary where he lived, St. Francis of Assisi on West 31st Street, neighbored New York City Fire Department Engine 1/Ladder 24.

“And I had no doubt he was down there,” Father Mullen said, referring to the disaster area.

To confirm his suspicion, he called the regional head of his order.

“As soon as he answered the phone – he didn’t even say, ‘Hello, Kevin’ – he just said, ‘It was Mychal.’ And I said, ‘I thought so.’ That’s how I learned.”

Father Mullen said the already crushingly tragic day immediately became painfully personal. But nonetheless, he still found himself certain of one thing.

“I felt that if Mychal was given his choice of how he would go out of this world, that would have been his choice: to be with the firefighters, literally going with his boots on. He was there. He was present.”

– ‘He resided deeper in you than you understood’ –
The first introduction Michael Daly – journalist and author of “The Book of Mychal: The Surprising Life and Heroic Death of Father Mychal Judge” from St. Martin’s Griffin – had to the priest was the sound of his and others’ laughter.

And it was coming from, of all places, a hospital burn unit.

Accompanying Patrick “Paddy” Brown – an FDNY captain who later died on 9/11 – Daly was there in 1994 to visit FDNY Captain John Drennan, who had been critically burned battling an apartment fire.

“So I go in,” Daly recalled, “and there’s all these guys laughing because of something this priest said – and I’m thinking, ‘Who is this guy?’”
On 9/11, Daly, a Catholic, was at the scene of the attack for the New York Daily News when the north tower collapsed. He remembers running for his life as a massive cloud of debris – chokingly dense with pulverized concrete, glass, metal and the contents of countless offices – rolled like a tsunami through the surrounding streets.

He admits he was afterward “hazy about timing and hours and all that.”

But he does know the air had finally cleared when FDNY Deputy Fire Chief Peter Hayden told him Father Judge was dead.
“And my knees just went,” recalled Daly, overwhelmed with shock. “I didn’t expect that; I didn’t know Mychal had been down there. Someone had called over the radio for the fire chaplain earlier. But I didn’t hear any response. And then – he’s gone, you know?”

“I think he just …” Daly paused, searching for the right description. “He resided deeper in you than you understood.”

– ‘A genius priest’ –
Daly described Father Judge walking the streets of New York City in his brown Franciscan habit, greeting homeless people by their first names, praying with them and distributing neatly folded cash.

Daly also recalled Father Judge often worked 16-hour days ministering at blazes and rescues – counseling firemen, their families and victims – and that he gently tended AIDS patients in an era when medical staff would not make physical contact.

After Father Judge’s death, close friends and associates revealed he was gay – but by all accounts, maintained his vow of celibacy. The response of Kevin Shea, a firefighter at FDNY Engine 40/Ladder 35 in Manhattan’s Lincoln Square, apparently typified the reaction of other first responders. “He said,” Daly recalled, “Well, if you tell me Michael Judge was gay, I’ll tell you I just had my first gay friend.”

While not “out” in the fire department, Daly said Father Judge told Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen, who was struggling with his son’s gay identity.

“You know, he was a genius priest,” said Daly. “He just was.”

– ‘I sat with his body for about an hour’ –
Father Christopher Keenan, a friar of the Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe, entered the Franciscans more than 60 years ago at Father Judge’s urging and became a FDNY chaplain after his friend’s death. On 9/11, he was helping in the emergency room at St. Vincent’s Hospital.

About 2 miles from ground zero, St. Vincent’s staff were caring for the dust-caked and dazed people who had outrun the collapse of the towers.

“I was connecting with their families to come pick them up. And about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, it kind of stopped. I left at 5:30 to walk home from 12th to 31st Street,” Father Keenan recalled. “I had a shift of confessions at 6:00. I came out of the hospital, and there’s doctors and nurses and staff with stretchers – still waiting for all the people that never came.”

Father Keenan had been looking for Father Judge.

“So when I arrived at the firehouse across the street from St. Francis of Assisi Church, I asked the guys, had they heard from Mychal? And they said, ‘He died – and his body is in the back of the firehouse here.’ They had set up sheets and cordoned off a section, where his body was in a black bag. And so I sat with his body for about an hour.”

Father Judge had been moved to Engine 1/Ladder 24 after temporarily lying in front of St. Peter’s altar.

“Then the friars came from across the street. And the firefighters gathered that were there … and we friars sang the Blessing of St. Francis … and then an ambulance took him to the morgue.”

Father Keenan noted that six from the firehouse had also died.

– Victim 0001 –
Father Judge was later numbered victim DM (Disaster Manhattan) 0001-01 of 2,753 souls eventually tallied in New York City after the World Trade Towers crumpled into an infernal landscape of fiery and smoking rubble. Father Keenan himself would spend seven months assisting in that rubble with recovery efforts, afterward contracting several forms of cancer.

In Washington that day, 184 were killed when hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. Another 40 aboard United Airlines Flight 93 died when a fourth hijacked plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field.

“The 25th anniversary is going to be a very solemn time,” Father Mullen said. “And I hope we have that consciousness still alive in our country – that this is very, very painful, especially for the families,” he shared.

“Because a lot of people have just taken this event for granted: ‘Well, that’s history – it happened, it’s over,’ he said. “But it’s never over for those families. Never, ever, over.”

(Kimberley Heatherington is an OSV News correspondent. She writes from Virginia.)

By Rob Herbst, The Catholic Week
MOBILE – When Sister Damiana Pickett professed her first religious vows Sept. 8 in Kraków, Poland, it marked another step in a journey of faith that has included conversion, disappointment, perseverance and a call to serve those in need.

The 38-year-old Greenville, Mississippi, native, who once rejected Christianity and did not enter the Catholic Church until age 27, will profess vows of poverty, chastity and obedience with the Congregation of Albertine Sisters Serving the Poor.

For Sister Damiana, formerly Zola Pickett, the path to religious life has hardly been a straight one.

She was raised in a Protestant family and remembers enjoying church as a young girl, particularly singing hymns and learning Bible stories in Sunday school. But by about age 11, she began wrestling with questions about her faith and said she could not find the answers she was seeking.

She eventually rejected Christianity during her teenage and young adult years, a period she said was increasingly affected by alcohol and drug abuse.
That changed Oct. 15, 2015.

Sister Damiana described that night as her “road to Damascus” moment.
“God gave a small whisper of grace into my heart that blinded my understanding with this intense light: He has loved me tremendously from the beginning of time, through every difficulty of my life, and He is always patiently waiting for His children to return to Him,” she said in an email interview.

While she keeps the words she experienced that night between herself and God, Sister Damiana said she came away with one unmistakable realization.
“God wanted me to belong completely to Him,” she said. “I had no idea what that looked like or how to achieve this, but I blindly resolved to try.”

She began attending RCIA (now OCIA) at St. James the Greater Parish in Tupelo, where she credits Father Lincoln Dall with patiently helping her find answers to questions about God, Christian life and prayer.
At the Easter Vigil in 2016, she was confirmed and received her first Holy Communion.

“It was the best moment of my life,” she said. “I truly can’t imagine how my life would be if I had not entered the Church.”

Her journey eventually brought her to the Archdiocese of Mobile.

Sister Damiana moved to Mobile in January 2019 to seriously discern religious life with a community in the archdiocese. She eventually found a parish home at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Chickasaw.

But in 2021, she said she was discouraged from applying to enter the community she had been discerning with after it was determined she was unlikely to do well in its formation program.

The setback left her questioning what she believed God had placed in her heart.|

She credits St. Thomas pastor Father William Saucier with helping her through the disappointment.

“Father William Saucier was incredibly supportive during this time, listening to my pain but always encouraging me to start again,” she said. “Without his support, I don’t think I would have had the courage to go ‘back to square one’ and start contacting other religious communities.”

She did just that.

In January 2022, Sister Damiana entered formation with a contemplative community in Minnesota and said she was happy there. But an encounter with a homeless woman led her to question whether God was calling her elsewhere.

With her superior’s blessing, she began looking for communities whose apostolates involved direct service to those experiencing homelessness.

Her search led her to the Albertine Sisters.

Founded in Kraków in 1891 by St. Brother Albert Chmielowski and Blessed Sister Bernardyna Jabłońska, the Congregation of Albertine Sisters Serving the Poor is an international congregation of pontifical right and part of the Third Order Franciscan tradition.

Its charism, Sister Damiana explained, is to see the suffering Christ in each person and “to pour out our lives doing good for all.”
The sisters serve in shelters and soup kitchens for the homeless and poor, assisted living homes for people with physical or intellectual disabilities and homes for retired priests. They also perform mission work in Bolivia, Argentina and Ukraine. The congregation has three houses in the United States, including its American motherhouse in Hammond, Indiana, near Chicago.
Sister Damiana said reading about the congregation and its founder immediately struck a chord.

“I immediately felt like Saint Brother Albert understood my desires very deeply,” she said.

She contacted the congregation’s American motherhouse and was welcomed for a visit. During the Easter octave in 2023, she left the contemplative community to continue following where she believed God was leading her.

That journey ultimately took her to Kraków and two years in the novitiate.

Her religious name also reflects her desire to serve those who may be overlooked.

In 2020, Sister Damiana worked as a certified nursing assistant in a nursing home and was among the few CNAs who volunteered to work with COVID-positive residents when needed.

During that time, St. Damien of Molokai, who ministered to people with leprosy in Hawaii, became a personal patron.
After joining the Albertines, she said she began reflecting on how the “leprosy” of sin can isolate people from God, others and even themselves.

“When I entered the novitiate and was able to choose my religious name, I knew it had to be Damiana,” she said.

During her first profession, Sister Damiana made vows of poverty, chastity and obedience that will be binding for one year. She described poverty as sharing everything she is and has while keeping nothing for herself; chastity as loving God with an undivided heart and seeking Him and His kingdom; and obedience as seeking God’s will while setting aside her own preferences.

“In a certain sense, my religious life is only beginning on the day of my first vows,” she said. “My past two years of novitiate have been a time of preparation to live by these promises.”

Sister Damiana will remain in Kraków following her first profession. When she renews her vows next year, she could receive a new assignment.

For those discerning their own vocation, Sister Damiana recommends daily Mass, Eucharistic adoration, the Rosary and making time for silence with God – even if only for five minutes.

But she has a particular message for those whose vocational journey has included the kind of disappointment she experienced.
“Don’t give up on God’s plan for you,” Sister Damiana said. “Our God turns bottomless oceans into dry land for us to walk across. Don’t listen to your fears; trust in God and let Him show you the path which He has set out for you.”

As her own path leads to the altar in Kraków, Sister Damiana is also asking for prayers.

“Please pray for me, my superiors, and all my sisters, that we may be beacons of hope and instruments of the Holy Spirit for the people we encounter in our lives and ministries.”