Churches respond with prayer, assistance - World Trade Center and Pentagon Attacks, 2001

National Catholic Reporter, Sept 21, 2001 by Patricia Lefevere

"There are really no answers that you can give people, but somehow you have to give them hope that somewhere, something good will come to lift us up and keep us going until we get the eternal vision of God," Judge wrote at the time.

Funerals or memorials

When NCR went to press there was still speculation as to whether the city would see individual funerals or massive memorials in churches, synagogues, mosques and mortuaries. At press time, thousands are presumed to be among the dead.

While Giuliani urged New Yorkers to come back to their jobs, to patronize shops, restaurants, theaters, movie and concert halls and to not be afraid to use public transport, many events had to be called off.

Among the cancellations was the 50th anniversary celebration of the International Catholic Migration Commission. Stranded in New York with no planes back to his office in Geneva, the commission's secretary general, William Canny, who had come to New York for the celebration, e-mailed his staff working in 20 nations around the world and urged them to give 110 percent of their efforts to help needy refugees.

"Do not let them become objects to you, do not let them become nameless and faceless. Keep these good folks, who have received a dose of `bad,' right in front of you," Canny wrote to those on the frontlines of sheltering the stranger. "They have been entrusted in your care. They will give you many blessings and gifts and you will be happy."

It was advice that many in New York could find comforting when they began to deal with the loss of their loved ones and the incomprehensible hatred and violence that had ripped away so many innocent lives.

Patricia Lefevere is NCR's special report writer. NCR staff and Catholic News Service contributed to this report.