Sometimes, when a child has burned to death in a fire, or thousands are killed in the collapse of a skyscraper, there is little to remind firefighters and paramedics of the presence of God.
But in the faces of the chaplains who pray with them in burning buildings, listen to their fears and remind them that the work they do is sacred, firefighters find a small reminder that God is with them.
New York firefighters had a beloved chaplain in Rev. Mychal Judge, who died after he rushed into the World Trade Center last week to administer last rites to a fallen firefighter.
In Chicago, Rev. Tom Mulcrone, Rev. Landis McAlpin and Rabbi Moshe Wolf tend to the city’s firefighters and paramedics in the firehouse, at the hospital and on the scene.
“It may not take the chaplains saying anything, but just seeing them shows you that in the whole scheme of things, you’re human and it’s OK to grieve and mourn,” said Chicago firefighter and paramedic Aaron Beals.
“It seems as if no matter where you are, they’re there. They’re not people who say, `Hey, come into our office.’ They’re on the front lines with you.”
Seeing the horror of fires that destroy lives, that injure and even kill firefighters, can sometimes shake a person’s faith, Mulcrone said.
“Firefighters and paramedics stand against a kind of evil that nobody can understand, and they see things every day that people shouldn’t have to see, so their needs are different,” said Mulcrone, who started with the department as an assistant chaplain in 1981.
Mulcrone and Rev. Thomas Nangle, the police chaplain for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, try to remind firefighters and police officers that their jobs are noble.
“Every morning a firefighter-paramedic puts on a uniform. And they are, in a sense, offering up their lives. There’s nothing more sacred than that,” Mulcrone said.
Dealing with the tragedy in New York, where hundreds of firefighters are feared dead, has been difficult for Chicago firefighters. Some, looking for a way to help, packed a bag and headed to New York.
“I have heard men say, `If God was a God of love, he would not have allowed this to happen,'” said McAlpin, a Protestant pastor who worked for decades as a firefighter before becoming a chaplain. At those times, he said, there are no words to comfort and, often, no answers.
“To allow them to maintain their faith, the only answer one can possibly give is this is a mystery of faith … but God in his infinite wisdom will help us to overcome the tragedy,” McAlpin said.
“I really espouse the position that Satan is loose in the world, that the forces of evil sometimes prevail in the world, and that this is what happened in New York,” he said.
Nangle said he doesn’t try to be God’s spokesman at such times.
“I run into a lot of things that are difficult for me to fit into my soul,” he said. And so, he knows it has to be difficult for police officers as well.
“I just very gently and very subtly remind them that God is in their lives,” he said.
Mulcrone said he focuses on listening. “I try to let them give voice to it. Sometimes they just need to hear it from their own mouths,” he said.
Because firefighters see the chaplains as their own, it’s easier to open up, said Chicago Fire Battalion Chief James O’Donnell.
“You’re not worried about what you say,” he said.
O’Donnell said that when he was severely injured in 1988, Mulcrone visited him every day in the hospital and helped his family through a tough time.
Besides visits to hospitals, wakes, weddings and funerals, Mulcrone also reports to extra-alarm fires and scenes where someone has been injured. He’ll put on his fire coat, his helmet marked “Chicago Fire Department Chaplain,” and report his arrival on the scanner.
“They’ll say, `Glad you’re here, padre,'” Mulcrone said.
“It’s encouraging to see him on the scene, spiritually,” said O’Donnell, who recently returned from helping out in New York.
Most important, O’Donnell said, “He’s always there.”
