Remembering 9-11 - A Day That Lives Forever in Our Hearts

What a Difference a Decade Makes!

September 11, 2001 changed the skyline of New York, the landscape of the Pentagon, a field in Pennsylvania and soul of America in a powerful way. On that day the journalists did more than report the facts; even mainline media personalities were calling the country to pray and support one another.

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - Where were you on 9-11? The question is still being asked today and everyone old enough to remember has a story, usually based on a vivid image locked indelibly in their hearts.

Many talk about being glued to the TV or radio; some mention they were stranded in airports as all flights were grounded; others speak of close friends or loved ones in or near one of the targets.

We are now marking a decade since the tragic attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon along with the plane crash in Pennsylvania; things have certainly changed in our remembrance of this terrorist attack on America. This is especially apparent in the ceremony of remembrance lead by Mayor Bloomberg in New York at Ground Zero.

Clergy will not be allowed to participate in the ceremony and no formal prayers will be offered. The mayor has continued to stick to his guns on his position, which has drawn strong criticism from a large number of religious leaders.

On his weekly radio program on Friday, Bloomberg stated, "It's a civil ceremony. There are plenty of opportunities for people to have their religious ceremonies. Some people don't want to go to a religious ceremony with another religion. And the number of different religions in this city are really quite amazing."

Not only has the mayor sanitized the event from anything spiritual, but he also "disinvited" the first responders - firemen, policemen and other public servants who risked their lives and their health to bring as many as possible to safety.

In a veiled effort to sound sympathetic, Bloomberg's assistance, Andrew Bent, stated, "While we are again focused on accommodating victims' family members, given the space constraints, we're working to find ways to recognize and honor first responders, and other groups, at different times and places."

First responders - many of them lost fellow officers or fire fighters that day - were there ten years ago, rushing into the burning and collapsing buildings. Certainly, they should have a place in the remembrance. I'm not sure who the "other groups" are but these brave men and women deserve their time of remembrance.

To put this remembrance in perspective, the mayor has removed the human spirit as well as God's spirit from the moment.

How different it was ten years ago, when the rhetoric that filled the airwaves that day had mainline media pundits punctuating their reports with phrases like, "the victims and their families are in our prayers," "as a nation, let us pray for the strength and resolve to make it through," and "please remember our valiant firefights and police in your prayers as they risk their lives to find survivors."

On 9-11 I wondered if America was beginning to experience an awakening of spirit as well as conscience. It felt as if we were all unified in a very unique way; pulling together both as citizens and children of God.

Even some who would be considered tough seasoned broadcast journalists were shown on TV with tears in their eyes, encouraging people to pray and support one another.

On September 11, 2001 I was still in Holy Orders as a bishop with the Charismatic Episcopal Church. Living in Northern Virginia, near the Pentagon, many of our church family as well as friends either worked there or nearby. I spent the day making sure everyone was OK and that spiritual and material support was being offered where needed.

We were also getting reports from those in our denomination from New York who were also directly affected, working in or near the World Trade Center.

The evening of 9-11 I stopped at a supermarket on my way home from a service and was surprised by the greetings I received there. People would stop me in the aisles and say, "Pray for us, Father," "It's good to see you, Father, on a day like today," or something similar.

As a member of clergy, I remembered the words of Pope John Paul II, who said that when priests were their clerics, God is able to walk the streets of His cities. We served as a sign of comfort for many that day. Truly, when we face the uncertain, God, as well as our eternal destiny, both play important roles.

That day was about the care of souls - and not just for pastors. Churches were opened for prayer. Many faithful, and even some who had fallen away, came to spend time with the Lord. It seemed that the spiritual dimension of our lives had become the bottom line in conversation and action.

Ground Zero locations, both in New York and Virginia, were the scenes for a great deal of ministry . Local pastors came to assist the injured and distraught. They aided survivors who were wandering the streets in a daze to find help.

Catholic priests, their confessional stoles saturated with ash, walked amidst the rubbble of the fallen towers of New York, hearing the confessions of first responders who might not survive their next trip into a building. They also offered Last Rites to the dying as well as anointing and support for the injured.

One particular individual stands out as an symbol of pastoral care that day, Father Michael Judge, Chaplain for the Fire Department of New York. He arrived early on the scene at the World Trade Center and began administering Last Rites to the dying on the streets.

He then entered the lobby of the North Tower and began ministering near the emergency command post set up there. He offered prayers for rescuers, and tended to the living and dying. He perished at 9:59am when the South Tower collapsed, sending debris into the North Tower lobby, killing many.

9-11 forced America to deal with eternal issues - like life and death - in a way we had never before experienced it, on our own soil from a terrorist attack.

As people gathered spontaneously near all the sites not long after the attack, you could hear individuals and small groups praying aloud, singing hymns and reciting the rosary. Small wooden crosses were placed on the ground nearby the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Also, photos of those lost were taped to placards with family and friends seeking to find solace with one another and the Lord.

Crowds also gathered not far from the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where heroic Americans sacrificed their lives that a third attack would not take place.

The days, weeks and months after 9-11 continued to be times of tribute. News programs ran video footage of places where family and friends had erected small shrines in honor of those who had died. Many of these places of personal remembrance also included prayers written on scraps of paper and other spiritual messages.

A few days after the attack, I had the privilege of helping to lead a memorial service next to the Pentagon. The service began with a processional to the location as a large number of faithful men, women and children followed a cross to the site. The memory of that service is etched in my heart.

Now, ten years later a lot has changed. In addition to the secularized-sanitized ceremony in New York, other places are also experiencing problems. Marietta College in southeastern Ohio, for example, is threatening to cancel a 9-11 memorial service organized by the students unless they agree to place flags of other nations among the 3,000 American flags they had planned to place in the ground.

It seems that political correctness has taken yet another victim, our ability to come together for spiritual support and encouragement along with Patriotic expression, as American citizens.

While we, as Catholic Christians along with other faiths, are not invited to Ground Zero on 9-11, we can pray where we are. We will be at Mass that day where prayers will be offered on behalf of the victims and survivors. The gospel of hope will also be preached.

As I finished that last paragraph I found myself thinking about the old hymn, "This is My Father's World." The last two stanzas seem most appropriate.

"This is my Father's world. O let me ne'er forget that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.

"This is my Father's world: why should my heart be sad? The Lord is King; let the heavens ring! God reigns; let the earth be glad!"

So, where were you on 9-11? My son vividly remembers sitting in high school English where the teacher turned off the TV set part-way through the attack and said, "No one's going to remember this ten years from now, anyway."

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Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online and the CEO/Associate Publisher for the Northern Virginia Local Edition of Catholic Online (http://virginia.catholic.org). He is a former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal Church who laid aside that ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

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