‘The Cross at Ground Zero’ and Other Stories of 9/11: “Faith Sustained Us”

- Kimberley Heatherington, OSV News

Some of the stories told by fire and emergency response teams, as well as priests and members of religious orders who went to Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, following the terrible terrorist attack, are well known, but others are not as well known. 

The help and comfort they provided to those who suffered devastating losses—including deaths, injuries, and missing persons—deserve to be remembered on this 25th anniversary.

Father Brian Jordan took some holy water and went to the scene of the disaster

“I remember it as if it were yesterday,” Father Brian Jordan told OSV News.

A Franciscan friar of the Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe within his order, the priest is currently the pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Church, located on West 31st Street in New York City.

That morning, Father Jordan was at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Upon hearing about the attack, he returned to the Franciscan friary on 31st Street, attached to the parish of St. Francis of Assisi, where he lived, determined to go to the scene of the disaster.

Not knowing for sure what he would find—though he expected to find both victims and those responsible for the attack—he took some holy water and a pair of bronze knuckles. “I said, ‘I’ll bless them with one hand, and just in case there are any bad guys, I’ll bless them with the other.’”.

Before leaving, another friar gave him some devastating news: his fellow Franciscan, Father Mychal Judge, had died. Even so, Father Jordan knew what Father Judge would have wanted him to do: go and help.

“There were bodies and body parts everywhere: I blessed them all”

After stopping at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan—where the only patients were people being treated for dust inhalation following the collapse of the Twin Towers—Father Jordan headed to Ground Zero, where he ran into a police captain he knew.

“He gave me a mask; he gave me a pair of gloves. He said to me, ‘Father, put on the mask, put on the gloves, and go to work.’ And so I walked back and forth for several blocks, and there were bodies and body parts. I simply blessed them all.”.

On September 16, Father Jordan celebrated his first Mass at Ground Zero; he would continue to celebrate Mass there for nearly 10 months.

The “Ground Zero Cross,” at Building 6 of the World Trade Center 

Then, on September 23, something unexpected happened.

“A big, burly construction worker from Local 731 came up to me and said, ‘Hey, Father, do you want to see the house of God?’”.

“Then we entered the ruins of Building 6 of the World Trade Center,” Father Jordan recalled. “There were about 25 firefighters beside me, and a construction worker asked me, ‘What do you see there, Father, right in the middle?’ I told him, ‘I can’t believe it… I see a cross.’”.

Two intersecting steel beams had been severed in such a way that they formed a crucifix after Building 6 of the World Trade Center was struck by debris from the collapse of the North Tower.

It was excavated, placed on concrete, and blessed

This remarkable discovery became known as the “Ground Zero Cross” and, over time, became part of the collection of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. It was excavated, placed on a concrete base, and blessed. On October 7, a Mass was held near it, at the corner of Vesey and West Streets.

“That moment gave people hope and encouragement,” explained Father Jordan, who wrote his own memoir—“The Ground Zero Cross” (Xlibris)—and was honored with the distinction of being its unofficial guardian.

Sister Margaret O’Brien

On September 11, Sister Margaret O’Brien, a Sister of Charity who worked for the Sisters of Charity Health System, was in her office at Bayley Seton Hospital on Staten Island, briefing a colleague who had just returned from vacation.

“Her secretary came in and said, ‘I just got a call. A plane crashed into the World Trade Center,’” Sister Margaret recalled. “We walked down the hall to a window from which we could see, and we realized how serious the situation was.”.

“The sisters quickly got ready to go to St. Vincent's Hospital ”to organize the emergency response and trauma care,” Sister Margaret explained. 'And the doctors were there, the stretchers were there—everyone was waiting at the entrance—but after a short while, no one showed up.'".

On the hotline, with people looking for their loved ones

Sister Margaret manned the emergency hotline at the Sisters' hospital operations center, taking calls from people looking for their loved ones.

“The phone was really difficult,” she reflected. “Because people would give you a name, and you’d check your list, but you couldn’t find them. … It was all very, very emotional, and for the first few days, the phone wouldn’t stop ringing.”.

“I remember feeling very grateful to have something I could contribute to, to be able to help,” said Sister Margaret, who currently serves as assistant to the president of the Sisters of Charity of New York.

Figures

It is worth noting that, in total, the attacks caused the immediate deaths of 2,977 people, including 441 first responders. As of June 30, more than 9,000 people, according to the World Trade Center Federal Health Program, had died since then.

To date, more than 57,000 first responders and survivors have been diagnosed with cancer related to the attack, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Trauma: The Most Common Cause

Trauma was a constant feature of the nurses’ shifts, especially for one colleague who cared for first-response teams sent to receive treatment after participating in recovery efforts at Ground Zero.

“Sometimes people spoke, but most of the time they simply couldn’t,“2 Sister O’Brien explained. Her colleague ‘remembered one person: she was very quiet, and then she said, ”I can lift my arms and legs. But when I lifted a rock and saw a face—just a head, crushed against the ground…’”.

“It collapsed,» Sister O’Brien added.

Father Stephen McGraw: An Airplane Flying Above Our Cars

Father Stephen McGraw—at that time a priest in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington—also witnessed indescribable scenes.

On the morning of September 11, a school Mass had just ended, and he was on his way to Arlington National Cemetery for a funeral when he made a mistake and failed to take the correct exit.

“I remember that, around 9:35, I was just stuck in traffic, right in front of the Pentagon.”.

He was worried that he would almost certainly be late for the funeral now.

“And then, without warning, the plane roared right over our cars, very, very low,” Father McGraw recounted. “I can’t say which of my senses was most affected: there was the vibration and the roar of the plane, and a light pole was struck and fell onto a taxi driver’s car that was just a few cars away.”.

As he looked to his right, he saw American Airlines Flight 77 crash into the Pentagon.

«I saw it crash and vanish, while a huge fireball shot out of the building the moment after the impact.».

Victim Assistance Near the Pentagon

Since his radio wasn't on and he didn't hear what was happening in New York City, «I just assumed it was a terrible, tragic accident.». 

The travelers were stunned, and Father McGraw jumped out of his car—with his stole, the oils for anointing, and a prayer book in his hands—crossed the highway safety barrier, and made his way across the Pentagon lawn to reach the victims.

“My message was: ‘Jesus is with you.’”

“Basically, my message to them was, ‘Jesus is with you.’ That’s what I kept telling the various victims I cared for,» Father McGraw said.

One of the victims, who identified himself as a Catholic—Juan Cruz, manager of the civil accounting division of the Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army—was administered the sacraments.

Another victim—Antoinette Sherman, an Army budget analyst who later died—lay face down on the grass, with severe burns on her back and only one shoe on one foot. Father McGraw gently left it there at her request.

“Then she simply added—perhaps to whoever might be listening—‘Tell my mother and father that I love them.’ And I assured her that I would.”.

“We saw evil in its fullest form, but we also saw goodness.”

Father McGraw—currently a missionary priest and pastor at the Bánica Mission in the Diocese of Arlington, in the Dominican Republic—does not believe that his unexpected destination was a coincidence.

“I had a strong sense of divine providence,” he told OSV Noticias. “I was meant to be there.”.

“We saw evil at its worst,» Father Jordan said. «But we also saw goodness at its best. New York City came together. The country came together. The world came together.».

Masses and Reflections by the Bishops These Days

As the nation commemorates the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, U.S. Catholic bishops are offering Masses, prayers, and reflections, while emphasizing the need to seek peace amid a fractured global landscape.

“Twenty-five years have passed since that day, and yet the chilling images remain etched in our minds,” said the Ukrainian Catholic bishops in the United States, led by Metropolitan Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of Philadelphia, in a pastoral letter To mark the occasion, a report published on September 4 states Gina Christian.

“Faith lifted us up and sustained us”

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has stated in a press release on September 9, that “faith lifted us up and sustained us” during the attack and its aftermath.

“As conflicts around the world intensify, let us renew our commitment to be instruments of Christ’s peace in an increasingly fractured and divided world,” he said.

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– Kimberley Heatherington is a correspondent, and Gina Christian She is a multimedia reporter; both work for OSV News.

– This information has been published recently on OSV News. You can find it, for example, here.