Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Event/Special

Hillary Clinton Speaks at NYC Fire Department Chaplain's Funeral

Aired September 15, 2001 - 12:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We have to go to back to St. Francis of Assisi where Hillary Clinton is speaking in honor of Chaplain Michael Judge.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: ... as you know so well, that it was a mission he had been called to do.

On Tuesday, when the worst of evil struck our city, I was heading toward my office at the Senate, and I heard first of the crash into the tower and, like so many people, thought that it must have been a terrible accident, and then shortly thereafter, the second.

As I frantically began making phone calls. We were evacuated because of the third crash into the Pentagon, and I called the mayor and the governor and the president. And I think, for so many people in those initial hours, it was unimaginable except for those of you and your comrades who were there in the midst of it.

And then I was called and told that Father Michael Judge had died doing what he was called to do. And all of a sudden the enormity of the tragedy became very personal.

It will take a very long time before any of us can even find the words to express what this cowardly, evil act meant and did to people we knew and loved, to our city and to our country.

But as a Christian, I think often of another terrible day, a Friday of despair, darkness and death, a Friday that left behind so much pain and hopelessness. And yet Sunday was coming, and Sunday did come.

As we continue the work, the rescue, recovery, rebuilding, reconstruction, we have to remember the spirit, the life and the love that Father Mike left us, pulling us one to the other, giving us strength where it seems hard to imagine it could ever come again, and being resolute in our commitment to do everything we can to ensure that not one person that lost his or her life on our Tuesday of death and darkness will have died in vain.

So thank you, Father Judge.

Father, you gave us so many gifts when you were alive, gifts of laughter and love. And blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, and you came to us. And now you've gone ahead, but you will never be forgotten, and we are grateful for the blessings of your life.

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

ZAHN: That of course is Senator Hillary Clinton, eulogizing Chaplain Michael Judge, making multiple references to her faith, her Christian roots. Basically saying that Chaplain Michael Judge, who died administering last rites to a fireman, had not died in vain, and certainly, that other Americans who lost their lives had not died in vain.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com