He said yes to sacrificing life

SECAUCUS, N.J. -- Kelly Ann Lynch, like so many others in Father 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,” said 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. Lynch -- whose father once served as an altar boy for 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 today’s sixth anniversary of 9/11, 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,” Lynch said recently over breakfast at a New Jersey hotel, a short hop from the East Rutherford parish where her family first met 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 Judge’s birth in Brooklyn, where he later 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.

Lynch, in a simple, straightforward style, details how 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 Sept. 11, 2001, when Judge, 68, became the first official victim of the terrorist attack that killed 2,750 people in the twin towers.

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 gay activist and friend of Judge’s, recalled how easily “Father Mike” bonded with children.

“He wrote notes and letters to children at their baptism,” 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.”

Judge counseled Lynch’s 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,” said the 39-year-old Lynch. Besides her book, Lynch runs the nonprofit Mychal’s Message, which provides aid to the dispossessed. Proceeds from “He Said Yes” will also benefit the homeless.