113 HR 1224 IH: Father Mychal Judge, O.F.M., Congressional Gold Medal Act
U.S. House of Representatives
2013-03-15
text/xml
EN
Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.
1.This Act may be cited as the
Father Mychal Judge, O.F.M.,
Congressional Gold Medal Act
.
2.Congress finds the following:
(1)Father Mychal Judge, O.F.M., beloved
Chaplain of the Fire Department of New York passed away as the first recorded
victim of the September 11, 2001, attacks after courageously rushing to the
World Trade Center to support, console, and administer last rites to the
victims of the attacks.
(2)A
native of Brooklyn, New York, Judge was born on May 11, 1933, to Irish Catholic
immigrants from County Leitrim.
(3)After his father
died of a long illness when Judge was 6 years old, Judge took odd jobs and
shined shoes at Penn Station to help support his mother and 2 sisters.
(4)Responding to his
strong spiritual calling, Judge entered the Franciscans in 1954.
(5)He trained at 4 seminaries in New York, New
Jersey, New Hampshire, and the District of Columbia and was ordained a Priest
of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor in 1961.
(6)From 1961 to 1986,
Father Judge served at St. Anthony’s Shrine in Boston, Massachusetts, St.
Joseph’s in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Sacred Heart in Rochelle Park, New
Jersey, Siena College in Loudonville, New York, and as pastor at St. Joseph’s
in West Milford, New Jersey.
(7)In 1986, Father
Judge was assigned to the Monastery of St. Francis of Assisi Church on West
31st Street, New York, where he served until his death in 2001.
(8)Known for his
tremendous capacity for compassion, Judge was beloved by the firefighters and
by the city he served.
(9)Judge would daily
send notes or make telephone calls to recognize birthdays, anniversaries, and
other significant dates in the lives of the people he knew.
(10)In 1994, Father
Mychal Judge, O.F.M., was named as one of the chaplains for the New York Fire
Department serving the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten
Island.
(11)Father Judge was
also well known for ministering to the poor and needy among us, including the
homeless, immigrants, recovering alcoholics, gays and lesbians, and people with
AIDS.
(12)Father Mychal
Judge’s funeral was held on September 15, 2001.
(13)Cardinal Edward
Egan presided over a Mass of 3,000 people, including city officials, President
Bill Clinton, and Senator Hillary Clinton, who called Judge a bearer of
light
and noted his death as a special loss.
3.
(a)The Speaker of the
House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make
appropriate arrangements for the presentation, on behalf of the Congress, of a
gold medal of appropriate design to the next of kin or personal representative
of Father Mychal Judge, O.F.M., in recognition of his example to the Nation of
selfless dedication to duty and compassion for one’s fellow citizens.
(b)For the purpose of the presentation referred to in
subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury shall strike a gold medal with
suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions to be determined by the
Secretary.
4.Under such regulations
as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, the Secretary may strike
duplicate medals in bronze of the gold medal struck pursuant to section 2 and
sell such duplicate medals at a price sufficient to cover the costs of the
duplicate medals (including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, overhead
expenses) and the cost of the gold medal.
5.The medals struck under
this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United
States Code.
6.
(a)There is authorized to be charged against the United
States Mint Public Enterprise Fund an amount not to exceed $30,000 to pay for
the cost of the medals authorized by this Act.
(b)Amounts received from the sale of duplicate bronze medals
under section 3 shall be deposited in the United States Mint Public Enterprise
Fund.