Archbishop Dolan knelt in prayer and blessed Ground Zero Friday morning during his first visit to the area since becoming New York's Catholic leader.Pausing to look over the vast construction site, Dolan said he felt an "overwhelming sadness" to be in a place where such horror, suffering and pain had occurred.
Yet he said he also felt the site symbolizes "hope and renewal."
"We will never stop crying," Dolan said.
"But it's also about September 12 and all the renewal, the rebuilding, hope, solidarity and compassion that symbolized this great community and still does.
"I find myself very overwhelmed."
Dolan pledged his support to Port Authority officials who joined him on the southern edge of the site and showed him plans for its reconstruction.
He described the site as sacred ground and likened the area to other places of pilgrimage around the world, such as the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem and Lourdes in France.
"People still come here, just as faithful people still go to the Wailing Wall, with memories and sadness and sorrow and suffering and yet trust in the Lord of hope," he said.
"Personally I find it very moving for me, for my own spiritual life, to be here in the season of Easter, in the days after Passover and in the season of spring."
Earlier in the morning, Dolan celebrated Mass with hundreds of worshippers at St. Peter's Church on Barclay St.
"I think of the devastated people who came here for solace and hope on 9/11," he said.
"Don't tell the people at St. Patrick's Cathedral, but this is a lot more historic," he joked.
After Mass, he greeted parishioners and then stood by the 20-foot-high, cross-shaped steel beam outside the church that survived the World Trade Center attacks.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Source (NYT)
SV (ED)