So, let me get this straight<\/strong>, just so we\u2019re all on the same page, here.<\/p>\n When two hijacked, terrorist-piloted passenger jets<\/strong> were deliberately flown into the Twin Towers, in an act of war against our nation, the first recorded casualty was a Roman Catholic priest and NYFD chaplain \u2014 Fr. Mychal Judge \u2014 who had ridden to the burning towers, and blessed doomed firefighters, hearing last confessions on the way.<\/p>\n And while Judge\u2019s body was being carried away from the catastrophe by the firefighters who loved him, and whom he loved, First Responders from all ranks, all units, all departments were heading toward that disaster area, not running away, intent on saving as many human lives as possible, even as they weighed the terrible odds. They went up the stairs, while office workers went down. Some of them were kissed by a blind man\u2019s guide-dog<\/strong><\/a>, as they passed. In the days, weeks and months after 9\/11, Rescue workers from all over the country showed up at Ground Zero to lend a hand, first at recovery, and then at debris removal. And, as Sr. Mary Ann Walsh details, here<\/strong><\/a>, lots of priests were there, too, from the first day, and for months afterward.<\/p>\n The city established a site for those looking for missing family members, a place with counselors and social workers. The line went on for blocks and priests walked alongside it and helped people accept the inevitable\u2014a loss of someone only to be found again in heaven. A veteran psychiatrist told Cardinal Egan that he was amazed when he interviewed families and saw how deeply they had been touched by their sidewalk conversations with priests.<\/p>\n The church knows the importance of chaplains and designates priests to help emergency workers such as police, firefighters, and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents. These public servants need one of their own in crises and at 9\/11 their own priests responded.<\/p>\n 9\/11\u2019s own, however, also turned out to be not just official chaplains but also priests in other ministries, like Msgr. Anthony Sherman, a Brooklyn pastor who counseled strangers and led funeral Masses for the dead from his parish\u2014some whose bodies were never found\u2014and Jesuit Father James Martin, an editor at America magazine, who worked with rescuers in the aftermath, and so many other unnamed and unrecognized priests who offered the sacraments, encouragement and human consolation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And the clergy were not represented only by Catholic priests;<\/strong> there were Rabbis and Protestant ministers; Orthodox priests and Muslim clergy. And nuns, too, and everyday people of great faith, or no faith at all, who understood that something greater than opinions or ideology or theology or social theory or doubt was before them.<\/p>\n But now \u2014 understanding all of that \u2014 we read that New York City\u2019s Mayor Michael Bloomberg is not inviting First Responders<\/strong><\/a> to observe the tenth anniversary of this day of death and sacrifice, at Ground Zero<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n And we read, also that Mayor Bloomberg\u2019s guest list is empty of any clergy, as well<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n There will be no prayers at his little shindig. Heaven, forbid.<\/p>\n Apparently, there\u2019s just not enough room for all the First Responders who want<\/em> to be there, because there are so many important people who must<\/em> be there! They cannot be denied their photo-op, and their speechifying, and their postures and poses, even though most of them were not even in office on that dreadful day. And of course, some of the families of the dead will be allowed in. One does need them for the pictures, after all.<\/p>\n First Responders and Clergyfolk are not very important<\/strong> to the powerful and the enlightened. They only protect us, rescue us, resuscitate us, console us, pray with us, bless us and bury us. And when they die doing it, well, one does feel terrible about it for a whole news cycle or two. And then one takes a private jet somewhere, and tries to forget\u2026<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know why I should be surprised. Priests and First Responders are, like our troops, front-line folk. They\u2019re like heroes in the cowboy flicks; they ride in, shoulder the burden, help put things to rights, and then \u2014 while the elite get on with assuming their power and asserting their primacy \u2013they recede into the background. Only the very few stick around to say \u2018thank you\u2019 and wave them off. Sometimes children ask them to come back, or to stay.<\/p>\n Bloomberg\u2019s priorities are all wrong.<\/strong> He\u2019s thinking like a Baron \u2014 or no, he\u2019s not really thinking at all; he\u2019s being pragmatic: mustn\u2019t let the help get get too much recognition, get too full of themselves \u2014 they might start getting uppity and making demands on milords purse and time. Mustn\u2019t let the damn clergy murmur their vulgar prayers, or next we\u2019ll have tent-revivalists cluttering up the fairgrounds and making such spectacles of themselves.<\/p>\n The big crowds for New Years Eve, or for the big parades, are alright, he thinks, but this is not for the riff-raff. Let\u2019s just keep the invite list confined to those who know how to dress and how to behave, and which fork to use, and when.<\/p>\n
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\nOf the First Responders, 343 members of the FDNY lost their lives.<\/strong> The NYPD lost 23. The Port Authority Police lost 37. Of the 2998 killed at Ground Zero, 403 of them were First Responders, and one of them was a priest. That\u2019s what, about 12% of the total?<\/p>\n
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\nNo, Michael Bloomberg\u2019s Super Colossal, Low-Salt 9\/11 Memorial<\/strong> and Networking Event is a big-ticket item for the the ones who can be tapped, later, for their money or their influence \u2014 the most important<\/em> sorts of people.<\/p>\n