FDNY CHAPLAINS

SPRING 2020

MINISTRY OF FIRST RESPONDERS

Early on a Wednesday morning, Msgr. Marc Filacchione gets into a car outside St. Mary’s Residence, where he says Mass every morning, and sets off for a day of ministry. His “parish,” for today, consists of the 11,000 firefighters and 4,000 EMS first responders of the New York Fire Department.

What lies in store over the next 24 hours is not entirely predictable: There may be hospital and home visits to injured and sick firefighters, a scheduled check-in at a fire station, a funeral or memorial service, a plaque dedication for a firefighter who died in the line of duty – and the outside chance of a call to the scene of a fire or disaster. It’s a busy day and possibly a busy night, and he’ll do it again when his rotation comes up next, in a week or so.

Msgr. Filacchione, who also serves as director of the Society for Propagation of the Faith and director of the Prison Ministry for the Archdiocese of New York, is one of the fire department’s seven chaplains, of whom four are Catholic priests, two are protestant ministers and one is a rabbi. The three other Catholic priests are Msgr. John Delendick, pastor of St. Jude in Brooklyn; Fr. Joseph Hoffman of St. Bartholomew in Queens; and Fr. Christopher Keenan of the College of Mt. St. Vincent in the Bronx (or his replacement; Fr. Keenan has retired since being interviewed for this story).

Msgr. Filacchione and Msgr. Delendick were both present at the event whose aftershock still reverberates through the chaplaincy. “Life changed drastically after September 11, 2001 – everyone in the department’s life changed drastically,” Msgr. Delendick recalls. “That whole next year, I was working from seven in the morning till midnight most days. I was part of different support groups. Each of us was doing two, some - times three memorials a day – in those days we were having memorials because we didn’t have bodies. We were taking families to the Trade Center site. It was a difficult year.”

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Fr. Keenan was asked to join the chaplain service, taking the spot of Fr. Mychal Judge, his friend and mentor since 1962. Fr. Judge was killed by debris at the World Trade Center, and the photograph of him being carried away by firefighters has become an icon of the day, emblematic of the dedication and sacrifice of the chaplains.

”I used to dig and rake with them on the pile,” Fr. Keenan recalls. “We’d go over the bridge and down into the pit. Every night going down the bridge was like descending into hell and seeing the face of God that was on everyone in the recovery operation.”

The FDNY lost 343 members on 9/11, and recently buried number 225 from 9/11-related illness. “I’ll be honest with you,” says Msgr. Delendick, “I thought we were finished after the last funeral from 9/11, and then it keeps coming up all over again. Soon the post-9/11 deaths are going to catch up to the number from the day itself.”

The work of the chaplains is not only about sadness and loss, however. They also participate in joyous occasions – offering blessings at graduations, promotions and departmental events, leading department members in prayer, celebrating weddings and other milestones in department members’ lives. They form friendships and shoot the breeze with firefighters during station visits. “Often they need a friendly ear,” Msgr Filacchione says, “They need someone who will listen, who understands the job but is outside the regular department chain of command. We are not trying to replace their home pastor. We always encourage the members to be connected to their home pastor and active in their parish.”

“The fire department for me is the best job in the City of New York,” Msgr. Delendick says, “even though there are days when it’s the hardest. You get to meet so many great families. The greatest blessing is to be associated with this group of people who live out values of generosity, compassion and commitment. It’s very uplifting.”

Fr. Keenan echoes this sentiment: “When I was commissioned,” he recalls, “the firefighters across the street from St. Francis Church called me for a meeting at the kitchen table of Engine 1, Ladder 24. Mychal Judge was one of five who died from that house. And they said to me: ‘We know that you’re giving your life for us as our chaplain. Whatever you need, simply express it and it will be done. We know you are ours – and don’t ever forget that all 11,000 of us are yours.”

At this time (Spring 2020), most FDNY chaplain services are being delivered remotely.