reflections, updates and homilies from Deacon Mike Talbot inspired by the following words from my ordination: Receive the Gospel of Christ whose herald you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe and practice what you teach...
United Nations: 81st General Assembly opens in New York
The world’s major powers gather at the United Nations headquarters in New York. At the heart of the agenda are major global issues, including the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, alongside the challenges facing the global economy and the issue of artificial intelligence.
By Paola Simonetti
The atmosphere is one of “an era of profound uncertainty,” in the words of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as the 81st United Nations General Assembly opens its debate on Tuesday, September 22. Heads of state and government from around the world are taking part, addressing international challenges ranging from security and geopolitical tensions to economic issues and artificial intelligence.
Following the Secretary-General’s opening report on the state of the world, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will, as is tradition, be the first speaker, followed by US President Donald Trump. Other world leaders will then take the floor, including Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is expected to meet with Trump today.
The ongoing conflicts
The high-level debate will continue through September 26. The war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year, Israel’s military operations in Gaza, and the hostilities between the United States and Iran will be among the most prominent issues. The latter conflict has a significant impact on oil prices and disrupts shipping through the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea. The conflict in Sudan is also on the agenda.
Regarding the confrontation between Washington and Tehran, France has announced that it is working on a new UN Security Council resolution aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ensuring freedom of navigation.
Expectations are generally realistic, with few anticipating any major breakthroughs. There is, however, considerable attention on what will happen away from the spotlight of the General Assembly chamber—namely, the bilateral meetings focused on the ongoing conflicts. A meeting between UN Secretary-General Guterres and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is already scheduled for September 24.
The crucial issue of AI
For the first time in its history, the General Assembly has also placed artificial intelligence at the top of its agenda—seeking a global agreement to establish limits on its development and use. Guterres has included AI among the “three existential threats” of our time, alongside the climate crisis and growing inequality.
Who will not attend
The list of absentees is also notable. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not attend. Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a delegate, although he is nevertheless expected to hold a direct meeting with Trump in Washington.
The"Cross at Ground Zero", a steel beam in the shape of a cross from the World Trade Center site that is part of the permanent exhibition of the 9/11 Museum Memorial (ANSA)
Remembering 9/11, 25 years later: 'We are never alone'
Twenty-five years after the terrorist attacks killed almost 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C., Archbishop Ronald Hicks of New York recalls the faith that helped people through that day, highlights the memorials to mark the anniversary, and stresses that even in “our tragedies…we are never alone.”
By Kielce Gussie
“Everyone I've talked to remembers exactly where they were 25 years ago,” says Archbishop Ronald Hicks of New York, referring to the anniversary marking a quarter of a century since the attacks of September 11, 2001.
FILE PHOTO: Workmen beginning the task of dismantling the destroyed remains of the 7 World Trade Center building in New York, USA on 17 September 2001 (ANSA)
Whether you were working, in school, or not yet born, the events of that day changed aspects of the world.
For Archbishop Hicks, September 11, 2001, started in the classroom during his graduate studies as a priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago, Illinois. He remembers how the entire class sat in disbelief after learning the news.
It was an event that affected not only the places where the planes crashed—New York, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania—but the thousands of people whose lives would never be the same.
Faith in the midst of terror
On a day filled with terror, sadness, and shock, faith, too, was found amid the rubble.
Not only did people find faith on 9/11, but Archbishop Hicks highlights how it became something to rely on. “At the core, when everything is falling apart, people go right back to God, to faith, to hope, to those core things that hold us together as a people,” he explains.
More than 2,900 people were killed on that day alone. Out of the thousands of first responders who charged into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania, hundreds died selflessly trying to save others.
Father Mychal Judge, the chaplain for the New York Fire Department, was one example of these core values in action. “I think what you saw in Father Judge is what happened to so many people,” Archbishop Hicks underlines. “When there's a need, you jump in, and you don't hesitate, and you help…he lost his life, but that is sacrificial love.”
Father Judge became the first certified fatality of the attacks. His name is among the other 2,976 persons forever immortalized in the memorial—made from the steel of the twin towers—in New York.
A community unites
In the city where the two World Trade Center towers once stood, acts of remembrance, services, Masses, and memorials will commemorate the anniversary—from walks of remembrance and wreath-laying ceremonies to dedications and light tributes.
Family members of victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center place flowers in one of two pools in the shapes of the footprints left by the two World Trade Center towers at Ground Zero (ANSA)
But exactly at 8:46 am—the moment 25 years ago when the first plane hit the North Tower—all the church bells in the city will ring as New York goes quiet.
It will be a moment “to stop, to listen, to pray, to not forget, and to do so as a community together with God,” Archbishop Hicks explains.
The archdiocese also held a vigil Mass on the evening of September 10 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the heart of New York City. In the packed church were family members of victims of 9/11, representatives of the New York Police and Fire departments, Port Authority, emergency service workers, civic leaders, humanitarian organizations, priests, and lay people.
The Tribute in Light installation is illuminated over the lower Manhattan skyline ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, in New York
Archbishop Hicks describes the support this unity brings, especially to those who are still grieving 25 years on. “It takes a long time with something of this magnitude. So, coming together in faith and at the Mass, that helps.”
Peace is fragile
Remembering the events of September 11, 2001, also reminds us that peace is fragile. It can only be accomplished if people join together to work for it, overcoming disagreements and challenges.
The attacks ushered in a period of tension. They fractured a sense of fraternity and shed doubts on the sense of stability and peace so painstakingly built after the end of the Cold War.
Just eight weeks after the attacks, St. Pope John Paul II highlighted dialogue as “essential for overcoming tragic conflicts inherited from the past, and for ensuring that ‘the name of the one God become increasingly what it is: a name of peace and a summons to peace.’”
Seven years later, standing at the site of the World Trade Center, Pope Benedict XVI prayed for peace in our violent world. “Comfort and console us, strengthen us in hope, and give us the wisdom and courage to work tirelessly for a world where true peace and love reign…”
In 2015, Pope Francis marveled at how such love was shown on that tragic day, remarking on how “here, amid pain and grief, we also have a palpable sense of the heroic goodness which people are capable of, those hidden reserves of strength from which we can draw. In the depths of pain and suffering, you also witnessed the heights of generosity and service. Hands reached out, lives were given.”
The Mass at St. Patrick’s, 25 years after the attacks, was an example of the dialogue and fraternity the pontiffs called for to achieve peace in the world but also in our countries, cities, and families. Catholics, rabbis, imams, Protestant ministers, interreligious and ecumenical groups were all present in the Cathedral, praying and hoping together.
FILE PHOTO: St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, New York (2020 Getty Images)
“[Dialogue] begins with us. We might disagree on a number of issues. It could be about theology, ecclesiology, [or] politics. But we have to take the first step to at least stand together, and to really follow the example of peace,” the archbishop of New York points out.
His entire homily at St. Patrick's centered on the fact that healing and grieving take time. They cannot be swept away. They cannot be ignored. But hope, the archbishop says, is eternal.
“God is with us in the good, in the bad. He is with us in our tragedies, in our joys. We are never abandoned. We are never alone. God was with us 25 years ago. God has been with us during these 25 years. God is with us today. God will continue to be with us tomorrow.”
“We are never abandoned. We are never alone. God was with us 25 years ago. God has been with us during these 25 years. God is with us today. God will continue to be with us tomorrow.”
A New York City firefighter attends a Mass at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Brooklyn, N.Y., marking the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2022. U.S. Catholic bishops are offering Masses, prayers and reflections as the nation marks the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks Sept. 11, 2026. (OSV News photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)
(OSV News) — 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 A. Gudziak of Philadelphia, in a pastoral letter for the occasion issued Sept. 4.
Archbishop Paul S. 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.
Catholic bishops mark 25th anniversary of 9/11 with prayer
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 knew toxins from the attacks remained long after the air was declared safe.
Ukrainian Catholic bishops call for 9/11 prayer and remembrance
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 P. 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.”
Catholic dioceses across the country plan 9/11 memorial Masses
Bishop Mark L. 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.
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 A. 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.
New York parishes remember Catholic first responders killed on 9/11
A family member of retired NYPD detective Luis Alvarez clutches a crucifix following his funeral Mass at Immaculate Conception Church in Astoria, N.Y., July 3, 2019. Alvarez, a 9/11 first responder and an advocate for 9/11 victims, died June 29 from cancer linked to his work at the New York World Trade Center site. Shortly before his death, Alvarez, 53, pleaded with Congress to extend health benefits for first responders involved in the rescue and recovery efforts following the 2001 terrorist attacks. (OSV News photo/Shannon Stapleton, Reuters)
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 J. 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.
U.S. bishops reflect on lessons of 9/11
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.”
