NEW YORK — This year’s Fr. Mychal Judge Walk of Remembrance — the annual event that traces the final steps of Mychal Judge, OFM, who died Sept. 11, 2001— is scheduled for Sept. 4. As is customary, the event is the Sunday before Sept. 11, according to Christopher Keenan, OFM, chaplain of the Fire Department of New York.
Participants interested in joining this tribute to the victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks should gather at St. Francis of Assisi Church, 135 West 31st Street, at 9 a.m. to pray the rosary and celebrate Mass.
“This is the main Mychal Judge event,” said Christopher, “where people can come together to share their memories.”
T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts showing Mychal’s Prayer and the words of his last homily have been created by Mychal’s Message, the Pennsylvania-based organization founded in 2002 to share Mychal’s values. Items can be ordered on the Mychal’s Message website.
Kelly Ann Lynch, cofounder of Mychal’s Message, said she enjoys the four-mile walk because “it is a way to remember and celebrate the life of a man — a priest, a brother, a friend — who touched the lives of so many.” The walk ends at the quarters of Ladder 10 on Liberty Street.
During his life, Mychal “shared his message with the rich and the poor, the healthy and the sick, firefighters and police officers, the Franciscan friars and the many men, women and children who called him ‘friend.’ His message was simple, interdenominational and touched many lives,” according to the summer 2011 issue of the Mychal’s Message newsletter.
In the past, a variety of New Yorkers — including Steven McDonald, the New York City police officer who was shot and paralyzed in July 1986 — have participated in the Walk of Remembrance. Along the route to the World Trade Center site, participants stop at firehouses and police precincts to pray. Special music is being planned for the Mass and the walk, said Lynch.
The first walk, in 2002, attracted roughly 50 participants. This year, organizers expect a crowd of nearly 600 walkers.
Details about the walk are available from John Bates at 516-238-0952.