{"id":764,"date":"2026-09-03T19:19:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T19:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/03\/kabarsula-marking-25-years-catholics-describe-ministering-in-aftermath-of-9-11-bandar-slot-indonesia\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T19:19:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T19:19:50","slug":"kabarsula-marking-25-years-catholics-describe-ministering-in-aftermath-of-9-11-bandar-slot-indonesia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/03\/kabarsula-marking-25-years-catholics-describe-ministering-in-aftermath-of-9-11-bandar-slot-indonesia\/","title":{"rendered":"kabarsula Marking 25 years: Catholics describe ministering in aftermath of 9\/11 bandar SLOT INDONESIA"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Father Joseph Wilson of St. Margaret Church in the New York borough of Queens prays during a candlelight vigil Sept. 11, 2013. The ceremony marked the 12th anniversary of the 9\/11 terrorist attacks. (OSV News photo\/Gregory A. Shemitz)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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On Sept. 11, 2001<\/a> \u2014 the date of the worst terrorist attack in American history, when four hijacked jets became deadly weapons \u2014 there was no shortage of heroic first responders who confronted danger instead of avoiding it.<\/p>\n

Many Catholic clergy and religious ministered among them \u2014 including priests, friars and sisters. Some of their stories are perhaps less well known \u2014 but the help and healing they also brought to those who experienced the devastating losses of 9\/11 are worth remembrance as the 25th anniversary approaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember like it was yesterday,\u201d Father Brian Jordan told OSV News.<\/p>\n

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A Franciscan friar of his order\u2019s Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the priest is the current pastor of the Church of St. Francis of Assisi on West 31st Street in New York City.<\/p>\n

That morning, Father Jordan was at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Hearing of the strike, he returned to the Franciscan friary on 31st Street \u2014 attached to St. Francis of Assisi Parish \u2014 where he lived, determined to go to the disaster site.<\/p>\n

Uncertain what he might find \u2014 but expecting both victims and perpetrators \u2014 he retrieved holy water and a pair of brass knuckles. \u201cI said, \u2018I\u2019ll bless them with one hand, and just in case there\u2019s any bad guys, I\u2019ll bless them with the other hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before he left, another friar had devastating news: Their fellow Franciscan, Father Mychal Judge, was dead. Still, Father Jordan knew what Father Judge would want him to do \u2014 go help.<\/p>\n

After stopping at Manhattan\u2019s St. Vincent\u2019s Hospital \u2014 the only patients were those being treated for dust inhalation after the Twin Towers collapsed \u2014 Father Jordan headed to ground zero, encountering a police captain he knew.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gave me a mask; he gave me a pair of gloves. He said, \u2018Father, put the mask on, put on the gloves and go to work.\u2019 And so I went up and down for a couple blocks, and there were bodies and body parts. I just blessed them all.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sept. 16, Father Jordan said his first Mass at ground zero; he would continue to have Mass there for nearly 10 months.<\/p>\n

Then on Sept. 23, there was a surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big burly construction worker from Local 731 comes up to me and says, \u2018Hey, Father, you want to see God\u2019s house?’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we go into the ruins of 6 World Trade Center,\u201d recalled Father Jordan. \u201cI had like 25 fighters next to me, and the construction worker says, \u2018What do you see there, Father, right in the middle?\u2019 I said, \u2018I can\u2019t believe this \u2026 I see a cross.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Two intersecting steel beams had been sheared into a crucifix, as 6 WTC was struck by debris from the collapse of the North Tower.<\/p>\n

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Franciscan Father Brian Jordan, standing with laborers and emergency workers Oct. 5, 2001, blesses a 17-foot-tall cross formed by steel beams and recovered from the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York brought down nearly a month earlier in the 9\/11 terrorist attacks. (OSV News photo\/Kathy Willens, Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The stunning artifact became known as the \u201cCross at Ground Zero\u201d and eventually became part of the 9\/11 Memorial & Museum collection.<\/p>\n

It was excavated, placed on a concrete abutment, and blessed. On Oct. 7, a Mass was celebrated near it, at the corner of Vesey and West streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gave a boost of energy to people at the time,\u201d explained Father Jordan, who wrote his own memoir \u2014 \u201cThe Ground Zero Cross\u201d (Xlibris) \u2014 and was given the distinction of being its unofficial guardian.<\/p>\n

On 9\/11, Sister Margaret O\u2019 Brien, a Sister of Charity working in the Sisters of Charity Health Care System, was in her office at the Bayley Seton Hospital on Staten Island, briefing a colleague just returned from vacation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer secretary came in and said, \u2018I just got a call. A plane went into the World Trade Center,’\u201d Sister Margaret remembered. \u201cWe went down the hall to a window we could see from, and we realized, this is going to be bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sisters quickly prepared to go to St. Vincent\u2019s Hospital \u201cto set up the emergency and trauma response,\u201d explained Sister Margaret. \u201cAnd the doctors were there, the stretchers were there, all waiting at the entrance \u2014 but after a short while, nobody came.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sister Margaret worked the hotline in the sisters\u2019 hospital command center, taking calls from people searching for loved ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe telephone was really hard,\u201d she reflected. \u201cBecause people would give you a name and you\u2019d check your list, and you didn\u2019t have them. \u2026 It was very, very emotional the whole time \u2014 and for the first couple of days, the phone just kept ringing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, she found a reason to be thankful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember being so grateful I had something to be part of, to help,\u201d said Sister Margaret, now assistant to the president of the Sisters of Charity New York.<\/p>\n

Trauma was a persistent feature of the sisters\u2019 shifts \u2014 especially for one colleague who assisted first responders sent for care from recovery work at ground zero.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes people would talk, but most of the time they just couldn\u2019t,\u201d Sister O\u2019Brien explained. Her colleague \u201cremembered one person \u2014 he was very quiet \u2014 and then he said, \u2018I can take the arms and the legs. But when I turned over a stone and saw a face, just a head, flattened into the ground.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe lost it,\u201d said Sister O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

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Missionary sisters pray at the 9\/11 memorial during a 2018 visit to New York City. (OSV News photo photo\/Catholic Extension)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Father Stephen McGraw \u2014 at the time a priest in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, just outside of Washington \u2014 also saw unspeakable sights.<\/p>\n

On the morning of 9\/11, he had just concluded a school Mass \u2014 and was on his way to Arlington National Cemetery for a burial when he missed the appropriate exit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember about 9:35, I\u2019m just sitting in this traffic, right in front of the Pentagon.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was distressed that he would now almost certainly be late for the burial.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then without warning, the plane came roaring right over the tops of our cars \u2014 very, very low,\u201d Father McGraw said. \u201cI can\u2019t say which of my senses was most impacted \u2014 there was the vibration and roar of the plane, and a light pole was clipped and fell over on a taxi driver\u2019s car just a few cars away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking to his right, he watched as American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw it crashing, disappearing, with a huge fireball billowing out from the building in the moment after the crash.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because his radio wasn\u2019t on to hear what was happening in New York City, \u201cI just assumed it was a terrible, tragic accident.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commuters came to a frozen stop, and Father McGraw leapt from his car \u2014 stole, anointing oils and prayer book in hand \u2014 vaulting the highway guardrail to the lawn of the Pentagon to reach the victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, my message to them was, \u2018Jesus is with you.\u2019 That\u2019s what I kept saying to the several victims I attended,\u201d said Father McGraw.<\/p>\n

One victim who identified himself as Catholic \u2014 Juan Cruz, the civilian accounting division manager in the Office of the Administrative Assistant for the Secretary of the Army \u2014 was given the sacraments.<\/p>\n

Another \u2014 Antoinette Sherman, an Army budget analyst, who later died \u2014 lay face down on the grass, severely burned on her back, a single shoe on one foot. Father McGraw gently removed it at her request.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen she just said, to perhaps whomever could hear her, \u2018Tell my mother and father that I love them.\u2019 And so I assured her that I would.\u201d<\/p>\n

Father McGraw \u2014 now a missionary priest and church pastor in the Diocese of Arlington\u2019s B\u00e1nica Mission in the Dominican Republic \u2014 doesn\u2019t think his unplanned detour was a coincidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a strong sense of divine providence,\u201d he told OSV News. \u201cI was meant to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attacks killed 2,977 people and injured thousands more: 2,753 people died in the Twin Towers collapse, brought down by two hijacked commercial airliners; 184 people died when a third hijacked airliner flew into the Pentagon; and 40 people died in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, when passengers and crew fought back against hijackers on a fourth airliner, forcing it to crash in a field near Shanksville. Officials believe the fourth plane was headed for the U.S. Capitol or the White House.<\/p>\n

The 25th anniversary of 9\/11 will not only be a time of solemn remembrance \u2014 it also leaves some longing for the national unity Americans once demonstrated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw evil at its worst,\u201d declared Father Jordan. \u201cBut we also saw goodness at its best. New York City came together. The country came together. The world came together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimberley Heatherington is an OSV News correspondent. She writes from Virginia.<\/em><\/p>\n

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