Construction workers Oct. 5, 2006, remove a 20-foot cross formed by steel beams that was recovered from the rubble after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks brought down the World Trade Center in New York. (OSV News/Reuters/Chip East)
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As the nation marks the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, U.S. Catholic bishops are offering Masses, prayers and reflections — while also stressing the need to seek peace amid a fractured global landscape.
"Twenty-five years have elapsed since that day and yet the chilling images remain etched in our minds," said the Ukrainian Catholic bishops of the U.S., led by Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak of Philadelphia, in a pastoral letter for the occasion issued Sept. 4.
Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a Sept. 9 statement that "faith lifted us up and sustained us" during the attack and its aftermath.
“As conflicts intensify around the world, let us renew our commitment to be Christ’s instruments of peace in an increasingly fractured and divided world," he said.
The coordinated attacks began when four commercial aircraft were hijacked by members of the Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda and crashed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. Passengers on United Flight 93 overpowered their captors, with the plane crashing near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, rather than reaching a likely target in Washington.
In total, the attacks immediately killed 2,977, including 441 first responders. As of June 30, more than 9,000 tracked by the federal World Trade Center Health Program have died since.
So far, over 57,000 first responders and survivors had been certified to have cancers related to the attack, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Sept. 8, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released 170,000 pages of documentation — part of a settlement with the independent 911 Health Watch organization — indicating that city officials had known toxins from the attacks remained long after the air was declared safe.
In their pastoral letter, the U.S. Ukrainian Catholic bishops called on their priests to celebrate a "panakhyda," a prayer service for the souls of the deceased, for 9/11 victims on either Sept. 11 or 13.
On Sept. 11, Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services will be the principal celebrant and homilist for the scheduled 5:15 p.m. Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.
In its online announcement of the liturgy, which will be livestreamed at www.nationalshrine.org/mass, the shrine observed that the nation had "gathered in prayer at the Basilica" on the day of the attacks "in shock, in tears, and in prayer."
Now, said the shrine, "we gather once again to remember those who died, honor the brave first responders and members of our Armed Forces who answered the nation's call in its aftermath, and entrust to the mercy of God all affected by that tragic day."
Bishop Mark Bartchak of Altoona-Johnstown, Pennsylvania, will participate along with other faith leaders in a Sept. 11 commemoration at the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville. That evening, he will also offer an opening prayer for the city of Altoona's official marking of the tragedy.
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Multiple Masses marking the somber milestone will be offered throughout New York and its surrounding counties, according to The Good Newsroom, the official news outlet of the Archdiocese of New York.
Archbishop Ronald Hicks of New York will celebrate a vigil Memorial Mass Sept. 10 at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The invitation-only liturgy, which begins at 5 p.m., will be livestreamed.
Masses will also take place at two cemeteries managed by St. Patrick's Cathedral trustees, Resurrection Cemetery on Staten Island and Calvary Cemetery in Queens. The two are the final resting places, respectively, for 61 and 16 victims of the attacks.
St. Philip Neri Church in the Bronx will honor three New York firefighters — Lt. Mickey Conboy, Lt. Michael K. Healey and firefighter Donald J. Regan — who responded to the 9/11 attacks. Conboy — who survived the attacks, which claimed the lives of his two colleagues — will be on hand as the church dedicates a plaque honoring all three.
The Good Newsroom noted that during a "terrible fire" at the parish in June 1967, Conboy, Healey and Regan had "risked their lives" to save the Blessed Sacrament. More than three decades later, Healey and Regan died at the World Trade Center on 9/11 while "saving other members of the Body of Christ," said the news outlet.
Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut — a state that lost 161 associated individuals to the attacks — will celebrate an evening Mass at St. Aloysius Parish in New Canaan, Connecticut, to honor 9/11 victims.
In their pastoral letter, the U.S. Ukrainian Catholic bishops said that Christians "must do more than remember" the horrors of 9/11, and reflect on its profound lessons about evil, goodness and the faith-filled choices that lie between the two.
"September 11 confronts us with the terrible reality of the capacity of fallen humanity for evil," said the bishops. "When hatred is allowed to take possession of the human heart, when another person is no longer seen as a child of God but as an enemy to be destroyed, the consequences can be horrifying."
Yet 9/11 also revealed humanity's "even greater capacity for goodness, courage, compassion, sacrifice and love," they said. "We saw strangers helping strangers. We saw firefighters climbing stairways toward almost certain death. We saw ordinary people performing extraordinary acts of courage."
They added that "one of the most important lessons of September 11" is to refuse to despair when "evil seems relentless."
"Despair is not the language of the Gospel. Hope is," said the U.S. Ukrainian Catholic bishops.
And, they said, "in the face of death, we proclaim with confidence the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and the promise of eternal life."
