Catholics across the United States, New York will remember 9-11-01 on it's 25th anniversary

 

‘Etched in our minds’: Bishops offer Masses, reflections on landmark anniversary of 9/11 attacks

written by Gina Christian

September 9, 2026

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.”

Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.

Will we ever know the truth about The Pentagon summoning and lecturing top Vatican diplomat Cardinal Pierre

 

Pentagon disputes report senior officials lectured Vatican diplomat about Pope Leo

written by Kate Scanlon 

A file photo shows the Pentagon building in Arlington, Va. (OSV News photot/Carlos Barria, Reuters)

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The top Vatican diplomat in the U.S. was brought to the Pentagon in January for a “bitter lecture” about comments from Pope Leo XIV that some senior U.S. defense officials perceived as criticism of the Trump administration, The Free Press reported April 6.

A spokesperson for the Pentagon confirmed a meeting took place, but denied the report’s description of that meeting in written comments to OSV News.

‘A bitter lecture’

“Vatican officials briefed on the meeting, who spoke with The Free Press on the condition of anonymity, described it as a bitter lecture warning that the United States has the military power to do whatever it wants — and that the Church had better take its side,” the report said. 

The Vatican nunciature, or embassy, in Washington told OSV News in a written statement that the meeting took place. But the statement did not shed light on the tone of the meeting or offer specifics about what was discussed there. 

“We can confirm that Cardinal Christophe Pierre had a meeting on January 22, 2026, at the Pentagon where he and several officials had discussed current affairs,” the statement said. “Meetings with government officials are a standard practice for the Nuncio, who serves as the Holy See’s ambassador to the United States. The Apostolic Nunciature is grateful for the opportunities to meet and dialogue with government officials and others in Washington to discuss areas of mutual concern.”

Report ‘highly exaggerated and distorted’

In a written statement provided to OSV News, an official with the War Department, a moniker for the Department of Defense, said, “The Free Press’s characterization of the meeting is highly exaggerated and distorted.”

“The meeting between Pentagon and Vatican officials was a respectful and reasonable discussion,” the statement said. “We have nothing but the highest regard and welcome continued dialogue with the Holy See.”

Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, acknowledged the report in comments to reporters in Rome April 9, but declined to comment on its accuracy.

“As for the more complex current issues, the pope has never stopped speaking out on this — even on recent occasions, like just a couple of days ago when he left Castel Gandolfo,” Bruni said, speaking in Italian, adding the report seems to reference “something that happened in January.”

“So, in short, I don’t have any specific answers to offer on that, other than that the pope’s words are more recent,” he said. 

Cardinal summoned to Pentagon

Cardinal Christophe Pierre, papal nuncio to the United States, is seen at the conclusion of an evening prayer at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City Feb. 5, 2026. (OSV News photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

The Free Press reported that after Pope Leo’s Jan. 9 speech to members of the diplomatic corps, Eldridge Colby, undersecretary of war for policy, summoned the Holy See’s then-ambassador to the U.S., Cardinal Christophe Pierre, to the Pentagon. In the speech, the pontiff had condemned zeal for war and raised alarm that “the principle established after the Second World War, which prohibited nations from using force to violate the borders of others, has been completely undermined.” 

The Free Press, an online outlet that recently became a division of CBS News, described the Colby-Cardinal Pierre meeting as likely unprecedented, as there does not appear to be any public record of any Vatican official ever taking a meeting at the Pentagon.

The report claimed Vatican officials said the Pentagon officials were “enraged” about a passage of the speech about what some call the “Donroe Doctrine,” or Trump’s argument for American dominance in the Western Hemisphere, his spin on the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, which sought to reduce European influence in the Americas.

Diplomacy must promote ‘dialogue,’ ‘seeks consensus’

“A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies,” the pontiff said in his January speech.

According to the report, an unnamed U.S. official even “went so far as to invoke the Avignon Papacy,” a tumultuous period in Church history where popes took up residence in Avignon, France, instead of in Rome, from 1309-1378, due to tremendous military pressure from King Philip IV of France. The king had violently feuded with one of the popes in Rome, leading to Pope Boniface VIII’s untimely death and a new pontiff who agreed to transfer the papacy to Avignon.

In response to a question about The Free Press report while traveling in Hungary, Vice President JD Vance first told reporters, “With no disrespect to the cardinal, I don’t know who Cardinal Christophe Pierre is.”

After being reminded of Cardinal Pierre’s role, Vance replied, “Oh, OK, OK. I’ve met him before. Sorry. I just didn’t remember the name.”

‘I’d like to talk’ to cardinal

Vance, who is the second Catholic to be U.S. vice president, said he had not seen the report, but “I’d like to actually talk to Cardinal Christophe Pierre and, frankly, to our people, to figure out what actually happened.” 

“I think it’s always a bad idea to offer an opinion on stories that are unconfirmed and uncorroborated, so I’m not going to do that,” he said.

Cardinal Pierre, 80, retired this year as the Vatican’s ambassador, or apostolic nuncio, to the U.S. with Pope Leo selecting Archbishop Gabriele G. Caccia, to serve as the next apostolic nuncio to the U.S. on March 7.  

According to the Vatican bulletin, Pope Leo met April 9 with Archbishop Caccia, who previous to his new assignment had represented the Holy See at the United Nations. Archbishop Caccia also met with Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, to discuss the U.S.-Holy See relationship and areas of mutual concern, the U.S. Embassy said April 8.

Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon. OSV News Vatican Editor Courtney Mares also contributed from Rome.