Cathedral Service for Fallen Firefighters Among 9/11 Remembrances

Posted

Cardinal Dolan will lead a 20th anniversary memorial service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Saturday, Sept. 11, to remember the 343 FDNY firefighters killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11.
The 1:30 p.m. service will feature a video scroll projected in the sanctuary with images of each firefighter as their names and ranks are recited. Firefighters who succumbed to 9/11-related illnesses will also be remembered.
The annual service, sponsored by the FDNY, will be attended by political dignitaries, department officials, chaplains, firefighters and families. Officials will give remarks, and musical tributes will be performed.
At the September 11 Memorial & Museum in lower Manhattan, the annual commemoration for family members will begin on Saturday, Sept. 11, at 8:30 a.m. Family members will read the names of those killed in the attacks. Six moments of silence will acknowledge when each of the World Trade Center towers was struck and fell as well as the times corresponding to the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.
At sundown, the annual Tribute in Light will illuminate the sky in commemoration of the anniversary.
The University of Notre Dame Alumni Club of Staten Island will hold its annual Eve of Solemn Remembrance commemorating the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001. The service will feature a concelebrated Mass Friday, Sept. 10, at 7 p.m., at Our Lady of Pity Church, 1616 Richmond Ave. in Staten Island’s Bulls Head section.
Retired Auxiliary Bishop John J. O’Hara, episcopal vicar of Staten Island, will be the principal celebrant and homilist. Father John Wroblewski, pastor of Our Lady of Pity and St. Anthony of Padua parish, and Msgr. Ferdinando Berardi, pastor of Blessed Sacrament and chaplain of the Notre Dame Club of Staten Island, will be among the concelebrants.
A reading of names of Staten Islanders lost on 9/11 and a candlelight procession are also service highlights. A presentation of sacred music by Maura Molloy will begin at 7 p.m.
Since 2002, the service has offered spiritual comfort to the families of Staten Islanders who lost loved ones in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
Joe Delaney, who has directed the Eve of Remembrance for the Notre Dame Club since its inception, said, “This year’s Mass and service is the Notre Dame Club’s way of saying we will never forget. Our Catholic faith teaches us that we are united with our deceased loved ones through the communion of saints and the Body of Christ.”
A reception will follow at which Bishop O’Hara will meet with family members of victims of 9/11 and other Staten Islanders who have attended the service over the years.
A livestream of the service will be available beginning at 7 p.m. on Sept. 10 on the website of the Notre Dame Club of Staten Island at https://my.nd.edu/topics/1207/news
The Father Mychal Judge, O.F.M., 9/11 Walk of Remembrance beginning with a Rosary at St. Francis of Assisi Church, 135 W. 31st St., Manhattan, will take place on Sunday, Sept. 5. It honors Father Judge, a Franciscan friar and FDNY chaplain who was killed in the collapse of the World Trade Center.
The 9:30 a.m. Rosary will be followed by the walk beginning from Engine 1/Ladder 24 firehouse on West 31st and Seventh Avenue. It will proceed down Seventh Avenue to St. Peter’s Church on Barclay Street, where Father Judge’s body was brought after his death. FDNY units and NYPD precincts will be honored in prayer for the sacrifices their members made that fateful day.
A new song cycle, “Stations of Mychal,” based on the life, ministry and death of Father Judge, will be performed at St. Francis of Assisi Church at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 10, and 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 11. The performances, with music by Kevin Salfen and libretto by Rick Davis, are free and open to the public.
A Mass marking the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and featuring more than 100 firefighters, police officers and other emergency responders will be offered at St. John the Evangelist Church, 225 E. Lake Blvd., Mahopac, on Sunday, Sept. 12, at 11:30 a.m. Father Philip Caruso, the pastor of St. John the Evangelist, will be the principal celebrant, and Father Patrick McCarthy, parochial vicar, will concelebrate.
Many of the firefighters will process to Mass in uniform on East Lake Boulevard from the Mahopac Volunteer Fire Department, where brunch will be held following Mass. Other firefighters from Mahopac Falls Volunteer Fire Department will also participate.