A message of forgiveness

WARWICK — New York City Detective Steven McDonald recalled how happy he was as he left his home on the morning of July 12, 1986, to drive to a job he loved.

He and his wife Patti Ann, only eight months into their marriage, were expecting their first child.

All was right with his life but at approximately 4:15 p.m. everything would change.

Twenty seven years ago McDonald was assigned to a plain clothes detail in Central Park when he was shot three times by a 15-year-old teenager.

The young gunman was sentenced to nine years in prison and was killed in a motorcycle accident three days after his release.

'I know that's my son'
On Sunday afternoon, Oct. 20, New McDonald, 55, now quadriplegic and confined to a wheelchair, told his inspirational story to an audience of more than 700 St. Stephen's parishioners including Confirmation candidates and their parents.

Seated in the audience on Sunday was Dolores Murphy, one of McDonald's sisters out of the eight children born to David and Anita McDonald.

Murphy, her husband Kevin and their three children are Warwick residents and members of the parish. Their daughter Mary, 13, who was also seated in the church, is a Confirmation candidate.

"I was 19 and at our family's home in Rockville Center on the day Stephen was shot," Murphy recalled. "My father was listening to the radio when they announced a plain clothes police officer, working in Central Park, had just been shot.

"I don't know what made him say this," she added. "They didn't give out any name. But my father immediately said, 'I know that's my son.'"

That evening McDonald lay critically injured at New York City's Bellevue Hospital with family and clergy at his bedside as doctors fought to save his life.

He remained there for nine months, comforted by having Mass said in his room and a host of visitors including Cardinal John O'Connor and Mayor Edward Koch.

Father and son
McDonald now focuses his 29-year career speaking, often to young people, about controlling violence and forgiveness and how his own strong faith has helped him understand that he is fulfilling God's plan.

Although McDonald had been paralyzed from the neck down and dependent on a breathing tube, he spoke to the boy who shot him and forgave him on the very same day in 1987 that his son Connor was baptized.

Following a long family tradition, Connor McDonald is now a New York City police officer.

Stephen McDonald is convinced that events immediately following the shooting that led to his survival were heavenly inspired. He believes that he lived to be an instrument of peace and he urged those preparing for Confirmation to turn to their faith and to find a purpose in their lives.

'To conquer death and hatred'
Before leaving the church, McDonald led everyone in praying a decade of the rosary. And although he wasn't feeling well that day, he spent whatever time was needed afterwards to talk with individuals who came forward to meet and thank him.

"Cardinal O'Connor summed up Stephen and Patti Ann McDonald the best," said the Rev. Michael McLoughlin, pastor of the Church of St. Stephen, the First Martyr. "The Cardinal said, 'They are ordinary New Yorkers ... but they are extraordinary, too, imbued with the spirit of forgiveness, faith and fidelity to each other beyond earthly measure. Their conscious effort to conquer death and hatred with the spirit of life and love ennobles them."

There was hardly a dry eye in the audience.

By Roger Gavan