As the United States today marks the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, US Catholic bishops are offering Masses, prayers and reflections – while also stressing the need to seek peace amid a fractured global landscape. Source: OSV News.
“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 US, led by Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak of Philadelphia, in a pastoral letter for the occasion issued on September 4.
Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a statement on Wednesday 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 Centre 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 2977, including 441 first responders. As of June 30, more than 9000 tracked by the federal World Trade Centre 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 Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released 170,000 pages of documentation – part of a settlement with the independent 911 Health Watch organisation – indicating that city officials had knew toxins from the attacks remained long after the air was declared safe.
Today, Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the US Archdiocese for the Military Services will be the principal celebrant and homilist for a Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.
Multiple Masses marking the sombre 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.
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‘Etched in our minds’: Bishops offer Masses, reflections on landmark anniversary of 9/11 attacks (By Gina Christian, OSV News)
