09/23/01

Vatican, Muslims condemn attacks

Vatican and Islamic dialogue officials joined in condemning the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington and said they go against religious conviction.

“We condemn the horrifying acts of terrorism committed Sept. 11 in the United States. We express our great sorrow at the number of victims, and we offer our condolences to their families,” said a statement by the Islamic-Catholic Liaison Committee. “Such acts of violence are not the way to bring peace to the world. As religious leaders we wish to emphasize that the true basis for peace is justice and mutual respect,” it said.

The statement was signed by Hamid Ahmad al-Rifaie, president of the International Islamic Forum for Dialogue, and Bishop Michael Fitzgerald, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

Chaplain dies aiding victims

New York (CNS) — New York Catholics recalled the kindness, generosity and priestly ministry of a popular fire chaplain who was killed by falling debris as he gave last rites to victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Franciscan Father Mychal F. Judge, 68, died shortly after the center’s first tower was struck.

Father Cassian A. Miles, communications director for Father Judge’s Holy Name province, said the chaplain accompanied firefighters who went into the tower before it collapsed.

New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani went into the tower, spoke to Father Judge and others around him, and then left.

Minutes later, a woman’s body fell on one of the firefighters, and falling debris hit Father Judge while he was giving the woman and the firefighter last rites, Miles said.

Other firefighters took their chaplain’s body to a nearby church, St. Peter’s. Father Judge’s photograph was posted at a sidewalk shrine outside the firehouse, along with photographs of lost members of the company. As many as 300 firefighters were reported missing.

He had been a fire chaplain since 1992 and his room looked out on the fire company across the street.

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A church and a nation respond to terrorism

Chicago-area Catholics and others turned to their faith in the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and their churches responded.

By the hundreds and thousands, people attended Masses and interfaith prayer services, looking for a way to make sense of the attacks that may have killed more than 5,000 people in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the four airplanes that were hijacked to mount the attack.

On Sept. 13, more than 1,500 people of a variety of faiths crowded into Holy Name Cathedral for an interfaith service that included a Jewish prayer of mourning in Hebrew and a reading from the Koran in Arabic.

The service included a collection for the American Red Cross, and concluded with a homily from Episcopal Bishop William D. Pursell, who called for the congregation to remember we are one human family.

"Will we allow our own faith traditions to be forgotten?" he asked, in a plea for Americans to forswear taking vengeance on Muslims or those of Arabic and Middle Eastern descent. "Will we forget that we are all made in the image of God? That God grieves for every person caught up in the mayhem of New York and Washington? That God loves the people of America, of the Middle East, of Afghanistan? That we are to respect the dignity of every human being-not only those who love us-but even those who resent and hate us, our enemies?"

Attacks bring crisis to airport chaplains

When there is a crisis in the air, or at an airport—as there was when terrorists commandeered planes at three airports Sept. 11—airport chaplains find themselves in the middle.

Father John Jamnicky knows this. For 20 years he was chaplain at O’Hare International Airport, the nation’s busiest. Last year Jamnicky was appointed coordinator for the Human Mobility Apostolate of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington.

Following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, all the nation’s airports were immediately shut down, leaving airport chaplains overwhelmed with ministry duties.