NEW YORK— Pope Francis spoke on Friday of the “unspeakable violence” that took place at ground zero on September 11, 2001, and lamented the failure to settle conflicts through peaceful means.
“Here grief is palpable,” the pope said in his speech at a multireligious gathering at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
“The water we see flowing toward that empty pit reminds us of all those lives which fell prey to those who think that destruction, tearing down, is the only way to settle conflicts,” Francis said.
Behind the pope was the slurry wall that held back the waters of the Hudson River after the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed. He shared the stage with a dozen religious leaders, including Jewish, Hindu and Muslim, on what he called “this hallowed ground” where 2,753 people died.
To his right stood the last upright beam taken from the trade center wreckage. It bears the rough lettering designating the units of the New York Fire Department and other first responders.
“It is a source of great hope that in this place of sorrow and remembrance I can join with leaders representing the many religious traditions which enrich the life of this great city,” the pope said. “I trust that our presence together will be a powerful sign of our shared desire to be a force for reconciliation, peace and justice in this community and throughout the world.”
Shortly before the service, Cardinal Timothy Dolan accompanied the pope along the border of one of the memorial pools. Francis prayed silently and placed a single flower on one of the slabs containing the names of the victims of the attacks.
“This is a place where we shed tears, we weep out of a sense of powerlessness in the face of injustice, murder and the failure to settle conflicts through dialogue,” the pontiff said. “Here we mourn the wrongful and senseless loss of innocent lives because of the inability to find solutions which respect the common good.
“This flowing water reminds us of yesterday’s tears, but also of all the tears still being shed today,” he said.
Families of four victims were introduced to the pope by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, chairman of the Memorial and Museum.
Inside the museum, Dolan, New York’s archbishop, welcomed Francis to the service, titled “A Witness to Peace.” His interfaith outreach was both a confession and a bit of a boast.
“We in New York are sinners… but one of the things we do well is sincere and fruitful interreligious friendship.” Dolan partly attributed that to New York’s diversity. “We work together, we pray together, we meet together, we talk to one another,” he said.
Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, of Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan, and Imam Khalid Latif, a fire department chaplain and the executive director and chaplain of the Islamic Center at New York University, followed Dolan with reflections.
“In this place, where horrendous violence was committed falsely in the name of God, we, representatives of the world religions in this great city of New York, gather to offer words of comfort and prayer,” Cosgrove said.
Khalid Latif said that “intolerance and ignorance fueled those who attacked this place.”
“The courage of today’s gathering distinguishes us from the opponents of religious freedom as we stand together as brothers and sisters to condemn their horrific acts of violence and honor each life that was lost unconditionally.”
Greek Orthodox, Buddhist and Sikh religious leaders also shared the stage in Foundation Hall.
Francis is the first pope to visit the Memorial and Museum. His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, prayed during a ceremony in April 2008 at ground zero before the Memorial and Museum opened.
In other parts of New York, people came from Haiti, from Puerto Rico, from Greece and from Brooklyn. They waved flags and Pope Francis dolls. They screamed, creating a joyful wall of sound.
The crowd that jammed Central Park to catch a brief glimpse of Francis on Friday was as diverse as the city hosting him, but it was united in desire to lay eyes on the man New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has called the world’s voice of conscience and moral compass.
This city known for paying scant attention to the famous seemed star-struck.
Josette Brandow, who came to the park at 11 a.m. hoping to see the pope on his way to Mass seven hours later, held a flag and framed photos of family members who couldn’t be there. She said her neighborhood of Gerritsen Beach in Brooklyn had been through a lot.
“I think people have been so beaten down over the years after 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy, everyone is looking for a little peace, a little understanding,” she said.
It was just such a message the pope delivered at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum on Friday morning.
“This place of death became a place of life, too,” the pontiff said during a tour of the memorial. The site became “a place of saved lives, a hymn to the triumph of life over the prophets of destruction and death, to goodness over evil, to reconciliation and unity over hatred and division.”
Later events in the day were lighter, including his visit to a Catholic school in East Harlem and quick ride past massive crowds in Central Park. Thousands converged at Madison Square Garden, where he celebrated Mass after a concert featuring Jennifer Hudson, Gloria Estefan and Harry Connick Jr.
The day began on a serious note.
At the United Nations in the morning, the pope spoke of the need for political inclusion, as well as the world’s responsibility to protect the environment. He voiced his concern for those in flight from poverty and oppression and praised efforts to curb nuclear weapons, including the recent US agreement with Iran.
He insisted that there was a “right of the environment” and that mankind has no authority to abuse it.
“Any harm done to the environment, therefore, is harm done to humanity,” he said.
The world’s most powerful countries, he said, were engaging in a “selfish and boundless thirst” for money by stripping away the world’s resources while exploiting the weak, the excluded and the disadvantaged.
Throughout his visit, Francis has tried to bridge the divide between the powerful and the weak, the rich and the poor. He has traveled among the homeless and needy.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made note of this.
“You are at home not in palaces, but among the poor; not with the famous, but with the forgotten; not in official portraits, but in ‘selfies’ with young people,” Ban said.
Francis appeared most relaxed among the children at Our Lady Queen of Angels school in East Harlem, where many of the children are from poor, immigrant families. There, he was serenaded by the children singing “When the Pope Comes Marching In.”
He posed for selfies and accepted gifts: a book of stories from 1,000 immigrants, a tablecloth embroidered by a group of mothers, a hard hat and leather tool belt from migrant workers, and a blue soccer ball from refugee children.
Tens of thousands at Central Park waited for hours for the chance to see Francis roll by in a “pope mobile.” They stood behind barriers after passing through metal detectors.
Some scrambled for perches atop rocky outcrops. Some squeezed into spaces on the ground to sit as those who had been sitting struggled to stand again. Police officers stopped to take photographs, obliging people who thrust cameras at them from the crowd.
A group with a front-row spot moved aside to clear a path for a visually impaired man moving with the aid of a white cane.
“I think it’s good for the people around me if I’m up front, because the pope likes to stop and talk to people with handicaps,” said the man, adding that he had been legally blind for nearly a decade.
It was more crowded than the worst subway car at rush hour, but nobody complained.
Los Angeles Times and Newsday/TNS
Image credits: AP/John Minchillo