Sunday, September 11, 2011
Priest Recalls the First Days After Flight 93 Crash
From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-
On the sunny morning of Sept. 12 , 2001, a Catholic priest and FBI chaplain from Pittsburgh stood on an overlook where a command post had been established above the Flight 93 crash site, said the prayers for burial and consecration and cast holy water toward the crater.
"By the Lord's own three days in the tomb he hallowed the graves of all who believe in him and made the grave a sign of hope and a promise of the resurrection, even as it claims our mortal bodies," the Rev. Joseph McCaffrey prayed at the first official consecration of the Sacred Ground where the Flight 93 National Memorial was dedicated Saturday.
"We pray that all who lost their lives here may live forever in the mercy of God."
Father McCaffrey, who became a law enforcement liaison to the Flight 93 families of the 40 passengers and crew who lost their lives, returned for the dedication in Somerset County. He spent hours stuck in traffic and wasn't able to speak with them prior to the ceremony. But he had a sense that his ministry at the site had come full circle, even as he worried that the nation wasn't practicing the lessons of unity and moral courage that the passengers and crew gave their lives to demonstrate.
Read more:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11254/1173883-84.stm#ixzz1XdjSBTN4
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