About Mychal's Message: Updates

Family keeps late Franciscan priest's memory alive at birthday party

By Tracy Early,Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Twelve-year-old Shannon Hickey and her family threw a party in New York May 26 to commemorate the birthday of Franciscan Father Mychal F. Judge, the fire department chaplain who died when he followed firefighters into the World Trade Center.

And the guests of honor were the homeless and hungry who line up to get sandwiches and coffee every morning at 7 a.m. at St. Francis of Assisi Church, where Father Judge was based and where the street is now named for him.

In 1930, about a year after the great Wall Street crash, this church, located in the midtown Manhattan area near Penn Station, Madison Square Garden and Macy's department store, started its Bread Line to help the unemployed through the Great Depression. The effort never stopped.

For the birthday party, each guest got not only the coffee and sandwiches -- upgraded for the occasion to roast beef -- but also got a can of soda, chips, a small birthday cake, an inexpensive watch and a "goodie bag" with articles both useful and edible. Women got pink carnations as an extra.

Dozens of brightly colored balloons added festivity, and "Moogie the Clown," who entertains at parties professionally, volunteered her services.

For Shannon and family, who live in Pennsylvania, it meant traveling to spend the night in New Jersey, and then getting up at 4:45 a.m. to reach the church around 6 and prepare for the guests about to arrive -- in the rain, as it turned out.

Afterward, Shannon, who was finishing seventh grade and approaching her 13th birthday, June 21, explained that she decided to throw the party for what would have been Father Judge's 70th birthday "instead of a transplant party for myself." The priest was a close family friend.

Shannon was born with a defective liver, and at seven months, on Jan. 29, 1991, received part of her mother's liver. On the anniversary in later years, the life-saving event was celebrated with a party, but since Father Judge's death she has been thinking more about commemorating his ministry.

Last year, she and her family had a "Socks for the Homeless" project that collected 1,500 pairs for distribution. Then, for what would have been Father Judge's 69th birthday, they came to the Bread Line and handed out his favorite kind of home-baked cookies, made from a recipe provided by his twin sister.

Some of the men who got socks asked about underwear, so that stimulated a "Blessed Bloomers" project for the anniversary of his death. And then came "Soles for Souls" to give sneakers.

For this year's birthday party, Shannon was accompanied by her mother and stepfather, Kelly and Joseph Lynch; their children, Christopher and Erin; grandparents Sharon and Robert Hickey; and New Jersey friends Carol Mackie and her daughter Sarah.

They were not able to make it on Father Judge's actual birthday, May 11, but moved the celebration to Memorial Day, and brought patriotic touches by wearing red, white and blue, and by adding red, silver and blue Hershey kisses to the goodie bags.

Father Judge had been a family friend for 40 years, from the time he had an assignment in New Jersey, and Robert Hickey had been his altar boy, they said.

"When Shannon was born, Father Mychal came from New York and blessed us, and he blessed Shannon before the transplant operation," her mother said. "Transplanting the liver from a living donor was an experimental procedure at the time. Hers was only the 17th in the country, and we had to go to Chicago for it."

"We were there nearly three months, and Father Mychal called us late every night to say a prayer for us," she said. "Then in 1997, when Shannon had problems and we thought there might be a rejection of the transplant, we called him right up again."

But there was no rejection, and for the celebration of Father Judge's 70th birthday, Shannon stood in the rain handing cans of soda to some 200 people "for Father Mychal," and at the end gave one of them her poncho.

The family has established a nonprofit organization, Mychal's Message, with a Web site (www.mychalsmessage.org), and through it and a mailing list has secured donations from across the United States and even some countries of Europe.

A CD that includes Shannon singing "Be Not Afraid" has just been produced, and was played to provide music for Father Judge's party.

The goal of Shannon and her family and friends is "keeping Father Mychal alive," and part of this has been spreading his message by the distribution of more than 8,000 cards with his prayer.

So each person in the Bread Line got a card offering the words:

"Lord, take me where you want me to go. Let me meet who you want me to meet. Tell me what you want me to say, and keep me out of your way."

[This article was re-printed here without permission – we’re working on it and optimistic that we will get it.]

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This page was last updated on: February 16, 2004.