In a moving tribute to saintly 9/11 victim Father Mychal Judge, 200 people today formed a procession to carry his fire jacket and helmet from his church on West 31st Street in Manhattan to the NYC Fire Museum to be placed in the permanent collection.
Beginning the solemn trek after Mass at St. Francis of Assisi church – across the street from Hook and Ladder 24/Engine 1 – the marchers, including Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano — stopped to briefly pray at two firehouses along the way to the museum on Spring Street.
Each time, firefighters inside would emerge to stand quietly, their hands clasped in front of them, their faces still etched in grief for the loss of “Father Mike” — the enormously popular NYFD chaplain and Franciscan friar.
Judge was killed in the North Tower, felled by debris flying through air when the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m.
An NYPD lieutenant found his lifeless body in the rubble and, along with two firemen and two civilians, carried him to nearby St. Peter’s Church.
That incredible procession — snapped by a wire service photographer, carried around the globe and considered an American Pieta — became the iconic representation of the horrific devastation that day.
Later, Judge was designated Victim 0001 – the first official casualty of 9/11.
At the museum, Judge’s jacket and helmet were dedicated as part of the first permanent memorial to the 343 members of the FDNY who lost their lives on 9/11.
The heart and soul of yesterday’s walk was Steven McDonald, who was befriended by Judge in the days after the young cop was shot and paralyzed by a thug’s bullet.
McDonald led the procession in his wheelchair.
“[Judge] was Steven’s arms and legs,” said McDonald’s sister, Clare McDonnell, 48, of Holmdel, NJ. “He was his best friend.”
McDonnell recalled that Father Judge would often come for dinner with the large McDonald family — “and then take the leftovers to give to the homeless.”
Her face still pained at his loss, Clare McDonnell said:
“It left a great big hole in our family when he was murdered that day.”
Steve McDonald, a cop befriended by Mather Judge after a thug’s bullet paralyzed him (in wheelchair, right), leads the 200-strong procession. (alex rud)