Journalists should not forget police chaplains amid ongoing race debate

Father Mychal Judge, a Franciscan friar who served as an FDNY chaplain, being carried out of rubble from the South Tower collapse on 9/11. Photo from America magazine’s video tribute to Judge.

(OPINION) I have covered my share of police funerals over the years. With some regularity over the course of two decades working in journalism, police officers have been shot and killed in the line of duty.

What follows — in print and on television — is a funeral, a mourning widow, crying family members and hundreds of officers gathered at a church. Even hardened reporters can tell you that covering these events can be heartbreaking.

There was no greater pain to hit New York City, and indeed the country, than the losses suffered with the 9/11 attacks. Of the 2,977 people killed in the attack that destroyed the World Trade Center, 412 were emergency workers who responded that day. They included:

* 343 firefighters (including a chaplain and two paramedics) of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY)

* 37 police officers of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department (PAPD)

* 23 police officers of the New York City Police Department (NYPD)

* 8 emergency medical technicians and paramedics from private emergency medical services

* 1 patrolman from the New York Fire Patrol  

That list keeps growing (2,996 at last count) as more die each year from cancer and other health-related issues associated with the attacks.

While the deaths of these brave people is something Americans will never forget, one has to wonder about that legacy now that there is a movement to defund the police in the wake of George Floyd’s murder while in police custody in Minneapolis.

I was there on 9/11. As a reporter for the New York Post at the time, I was only blocks away when the second tower collapsed. I spent the next few months covering the tragedy and the many lives it impacted. One of the deaths I remember most was that of Father Mychal Judge, a Franciscan friar who served as an FDNY chaplain. I had spoken with Judge just a few weeks prior to his death after he officiated the funeral Mass of Michael Gorumba, a rookie firefighter who died in August 2001. Gorumba suffered a heart attack shortly after battling a giant fire.

On 9/11, Judge was the first certified fatality. That tragic morning, Judge prayed over bodies lying on the streets, then entered the lobby of the World Trade Center’s North Tower, where an emergency command post had been set up. There, he continued offering prayers. When the South Tower collapsed, debris went flying through the neighboring tower’s lobby, killing Judge and others.

At the moment he was struck in the head and killed, Judge had been repeatedly praying aloud: “Jesus, please end this right now! God, please end this!” As a result, there have been calls to make Judge a saint. The image most remember is that of Judge’s body being carried out of the rubble (see photo at the start of this post).

Over the past few weeks, my thoughts returned to Judge, his heroism and the role of chaplains in general and in the lives of first responders.

This seems especially important during America’s current crisis. What about police chaplains? What do they do exactly? What do they think of the current situation? Why hasn’t the mainstream press interviewed more of them over the last month? As the national debate surrounding law-enforcement practices and the Black Lives Matter movement continues, journalists need to go beyond covering the obvious — notably protests that make good television and press releases from politicians promising to solve the problem by taking down statues they may not like or by remaining silent while rioters tear down statues.

These are all issues newsrooms should be asking as they try to expand coverage. Let’s start with the easy ones. What is a police chaplain? They are fully-ordained clergy who represent various faith traditions and serve as a support system for police officers. They can be volunteers or sworn officers, depending on the size and budget of the department. They work in general obscurity. Reporters, most often, only see these men and women when officiating a police funeral.

The next two questions are a little tougher to answer. What do these chaplains think about the current situation regarding police-community relations, and why haven’t more been interviewed? These go into a deeper journalism problem.

The coverage of the past few weeks has been highly politicized. How can it not be? It has involved lawmakers, police budgets and the upcoming November elections. What about faith? This is where a focus on chaplains could amplify coverage. Instead, we have seen very little initiative on the part of secular newsrooms for this type of coverage. (Note also GetReligion’s calls for more coverage of African-American clergy involved in the legal protests.)

When chaplains did make the news, it was for a host of different reasons. One police chaplain did receive news coverage — but only when he attended a demonstration and embraced a protester. I’m referring to a story about police in Auburndale, Florida, that was broadcast by WFLA, an NBC affiliate based in Tampa. Here’s the story:

Auburndale Police Chief Andy Ray called this type of protest the “American way.”

“We’re here because we took an oath to uphold the constitution and part of that is the right for people to peacefully assemble and air their grievances,” Chief Ray said.

For ten silent minutes, the protestors took a knee in honor of George Floyd.

“Lord we lament the loss of his life, we believe it to be wrong,” Auburndale Police Chaplain Michael Spivey said while leading a prayer circle. “So today, oh God we pray for your great mercy over our nation. We repent for things that should not have been that continue to be.”

When it was time for everyone to go home, 8 On Your Side watched a moment of hope and healing. The chaplain stopped to embrace one of the demonstrators.

The chaplain made the news only because of his public gesture in front of cameras. It was a touching moment, nonetheless, but highlighted the general disinterest in seeking to interview chaplains.

A very good story by The Associated Press did interview police chaplains in Minneapolis, where Floyd died. Here’s how the story opens:

As an African American pastor who serves as a chaplain in the Minneapolis police precinct where the white officer charged with murdering George Floyd worked, the Rev. Charles Graham believes he is exactly where God intended.

“God is putting us where he wants us to be,” said Graham, pastor emeritus at Macedonia Baptist Church in Minneapolis and chaplain at the 3rd Precinct for six years. “I know it’s my job to show the hope. We might as well learn how to live together.”

Graham and other Twin Cities faith leaders who minister to communities historically ravaged by racial injustice know their neighborhoods are also the most vulnerable to poverty and crime. Most of the worst looting and vandalism this week struck long-established Native American and African American areas that more recently became home to large groups of Hmong, Somali and Latino migrants.

Firm in their denunciation of brutality and racism, the religious leaders believe that using faith to build bridges between law enforcement and the communities they police will ultimately keep everyone safe.

“We’re better together,” said Joan Austin, a minister at New Creation Baptist Church in Minneapolis and a chaplain in the 5th Precinct, which was engulfed in violent protests the night after the third precinct was torched. “I lift (officers and congregants) up in prayer every single night.”

Praying with police officers before they go on duty, bringing them into meetings with the communities they serve but often don’t live in, and trying to break down mutual fear and suspicion are some of the ways in which chaplains serve both their congregations and their precincts.

Wonderfully done, but this is the exception compared to the tons of other news coverage of the past month. It also lacked Catholic voices, a sign more of the church’s inability to attract African Americans over the years rather than any journalistic issue.

Let’s link this trend to what I believe is a related issue.

Many clergy who did make it into the headlines were slammed by “cancel culture,” fueled by Twitter and other online forums. The Rev. Daniel Patrick Moloney, who served as MIT’s Catholic chaplain, was forced to resign recently after sending an email that said, according to The Boston Globe’s account, Floyd should not have been killed while in police custody, but that “he had not lived a virtuous life.” This was part of a complex discussion of mercy and justice, linked to the failings of all people — police included.

That outraged some. Moloney’s email also said the following, while probing other factors linked to this tragedy:

“In the wake of George Floyd’s death, most people in the country have framed this as an act of racism. I don’t think we know that. Many people have claimed that racism is a major problem in police forces. I don’t think we know that.”

The email and subsequent resignation, forced upon Moloney by the school and ultimately the Archdiocese of Boston, earned ample news coverage throughout news outlets across New England and nationally. That the coverage of Moloney’s resignation was one-sided (no one interviewed came to his defense) made the journalism surrounding the incident poorer as a result.

Certainly, Moloney’s resignation and its implications will have a chilling effect on the type of speech all clergy can engage in — part of a larger (and unfortunate) “cancel culture” trend these days in American public life. Meanwhile, chaplains, from my experience, work hard to make the world a better place. There needs to be more media attention placed on their good works.

This post originally appeared at GetReligion.

Clemente Lisi is a senior editor and regular contributor to Religion Unplugged. He is the former deputy head of news at the New York Daily News and teaches journalism at The King’s College in New York City. Follow him on Twitter @ClementeLisi.