By GEORGE NIANIATUS

Father Mychal Judge seemed to have a single-minded passion to help others - no matter what their situation or status in life.

Even in the final moments of his own life, he was ministering to victims just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City when he was fatally struck in the head from falling debris.

Father Mychal, a St. Bonaventure University alumnus and Franciscan friar, ultimately was the first official victim of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

As a way to forever honor his memory and lifelong deeds, the school established the Father Mychal Judge Center in 2010 to offer student, faculty and cultural exchanges with Ireland and the United States. They include academic study, service learning, co-curricular seminars and research.

In starting the center, St. Bonaventure recognized the strong Irish heritage of its founder, Nicholas Devereux, the centuries-old and significant contributions of the Franciscan Friars of Ireland, and the university's long-standing commitment to servant leadership and social entrepreneurship.

Father Mychal was well-known for the many ways in which he was committed to serving the poor, friendless and disenfranchised. He was a counselor, pastor, fire chaplain for the New York City Fire Department and a peacemaker. His work focused on promoting reconciliation, whether in addressing the AIDS crisis of the 1980s or the Irish peace process of the 1990s.

The center offers opportunities for students to explore issues facing the people of Ireland as they respond to the end of a century of violent conflict.

University President Sister Margaret Carney, OSF, said: "When the center was still in the planning stages, I met with the staff of the Irish prime minister in Dublin. When I told him that we wanted to have Ireland become a 'classroom,' they were intrigued. I explained that the people of Ireland found a way to end centuries of hostility due to religious, ethnic and economic differences.

"In place of that history of hatred, a new politics of collaboration and social change was in evidence. This is what we study through the Mychal Judge Center. Many countries in this world can benefit from the Irish experience. Our students will be ready to be world citizens with lessons like this," she said.

The center is quickly growing in popularity among St. Bonaventure students.

"We had 15 students who went to Ireland in the spring of 2010 and we also had one student from Ireland come here" to St. Bonaventure, said Larry Sorokes, director of both the Father Mychal Judge Center and the Center for Community Engagement. He also is associate vice president for Franciscan Mission.

"This year, we had 36 students from SBU go to Ireland in the spring and another 12 this summer," he said. "The concepts of understanding and reconciliation" are ingrained in students participating in the program. Through it, "the relationships we have built in Northern Ireland have been really strong in academics and in the peace process."

He added, "These connections have been very powerful for our students. They meet many different people and learn how they grew up and grew safe communities - no matter where they lived."

For those participating in the exchange program, "it will be a learning experience from the point of application," said Alice Sayegh, director of Study Abroad and International Programs. "I think the Mychal Judge Center really takes the shell shock that people felt after 9/11 and puts it in a productive framework. The visuals from 9/11 are still in people's minds and Father Mychal Judge was one of those visuals.

"His legacy is really what is moving us forward, in some small way, at this institution in terms of looking at issues of conflict and peace and reconciliation and how you move through those stages. And if you can move through those stages, it's a healing. It's our reconciliation in trying to deal with what happened on 9/11 and moving it forward in the 21st century," she said.

Guiding or assisting troubled people through difficult times is what motivated Father Mychal.

In the 1980s, he befriended Steven McDonald, a New York City detective who was paralyzed after being shot three times by a robber. Ultimately, Father Mychal helped him reconcile with the person who shot him. Father Mychal and McDonald would even travel together to give inspirational talks about peace initiatives and reconciliation.

Father Mychal was focused and had an ability to intently listen to others, which made people feel close to him.

"Everybody thought he was their best friend. He would put that much attention on people" when talking to them, said Brother Kevin Kriso, OFM, a liaison for St. Bonaventure's Mount Irenaeus, a mountain sanctuary which serves as a retreat for students, faculty and visitors.

"He had a great wit and a very, very active mind. He was always thinking and concerned about people and what he could do for people," Kriso said. "He was the type of person who would always wonder what was the next thing he should be doing."

He would constantly "stockpile supplies in the closet such as blankets, clothes and household items" to help the poor and struggling in New York City, he added.

Brother Edward Coughlin, OFM, St. Bonaventure's vice president for Franciscan Mission, knew Father Mychal well.

"He was extremely extroverted with a huge smile and an extended hand," said Coughlin. "He was always focused on the person he was talking to. He was always attentive to the person. People felt a connection with him. He impacted many people's lives,"

One man who attended his wake was a London banker.

"He took a plane from London to Chicago and then drove to New York City to pay his respects to Mychal," said Coughlin. "The banker truly felt Mychal saved his life."

The London banker, who was an alcoholic, apparently gained the resolve to overcome his addiction with help and guidance from Father Mychal.

A memorial headstone bears a guiding prayer that Judge was known to say regularly: "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."

In the book "Father Mychal Judge," author Michael Ford wrote: "Like many people the world over, I first learned of Father Mychal Judge through a picture. The Reuters photograph, showing his body being carried by five rescue workers from the dust and rubble of the North Tower, became an icon of September 11. It was likened even to Michelangelo's Pieta of Mary, the mother of Jesus, holding her son's slumped body at the foot of the cross. It was a heroic image of a man who had been born a first twin and now died in the womb of the first twin tower. Father Mychal's twin sister, Dympna Jessich, told reporters, 'He was a hero who lived a glorious life - and he had a glorious death.' "

After the World Trade Center's North Tower was struck by an airplane traveling 500 miles per hour and rescue and evacuation efforts began, one of the first to speak with the chaplain was then-New York City Mayor Rudolph Guiliani. Ford wrote that as Father Mychal ran by, the mayor put his hand on his shoulder and said, "Mychal, please pray for us."

With a big, but anxious, Irish smile, Father Mychal replied, "I always do." Then he ran on with the firefighters into the lobby of the North Tower.

George Nianiatus is a freelance writer in Olean.