Priest assesses state of city 'one year after'
STAFF WRITER
Msgr. Harry Byrne can feel the first anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City approaching even as he does something as ordinary as go to a bookstore.
"Stores are filled with photograph books taken on 9/11 and beautiful art books that show pictures of the World Trade Center before it was demolished -- to bring attention to what was destroyed," he said.
The upcoming anniversary "has awakened a wave of depression as people re-live and remember the day, because so many of us were affected personally," he said, speaking by phone from Epiphany Church in East Manhattan. Msgr. Byrne is the former chancellor of the Archdiocese of New York City and a retired pastor at Epiphany.
Remembering
The 9/11 anniversary is bringing a remarkable personal and psychological toll to New York City, the priest told The Evangelist.
"The Fire Department lost 343 firefighters, depriving 607 children of their fathers," he said. Employees of Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial firm, left behind 1,300 children who lost at least one parent. That makes the tragedy almost as large as the city itself, Msgr. Byrne said.
Throughout the year, he has helped the members of his parish move through sadness, grief, denial and terror. "People are reflecting on so many young people that were lost, broken lives, people who were just getting married, lovers, husbands and wives," he explained. "I cringe whenever I see the television replaying shots of the towers coming down. A lot of children are having bad dreams."
Losses
Many Manhattanites are still reeling from shock, pain and memories of loved ones who, in Father Byrne's words, were killed by "cascading towers that obliterated flesh and identity."
Like all New Yorkers, the people of his parish lost relatives, friends and children, such as a rugby player who had grown up in the parish school and a young bond trader whose wedding was to be celebrated on Nov. 17.
Across the street from Father Byrne's residence is the 13th Precinct of the New York Police Department. Members of the precinct's emergency squad went to the World Trade Center within a half-hour of the attack, and some didn't return.
"They were down there interminably," he remembered. "They were there, months afterward, working 12-hour shifts, trying to find survivors...then trying to find bodies."
After the attack, Father Byrne often went to the precinct to minister to emergency workers and police. Since nearly 85 percent of New York City's firefighters and police are Catholic, local parishes have been among the hardest-hit, he said.
Hope amid horror
However, Father Byrne continued, loss is not the only thing New Yorkers have experienced the past 12 months; they have also brought hope to themselves and their neighbors through extraordinary heroism and service.
"There is a bright spot: all the heroism that took place, the uplooking attitudes" of New Yorkers, he said. People have "resolved to pick up the strands, and go on with their lives."
The emergency squad at the 13th Precinct set up a fund to help victims' families; one night, someone walked in with a check for $100,000. Neighborhood women served food for policemen and rescue workers at the precinct 24 hours a day for months; and funerals were filled to overflowing with men and women whose goal is to emotionally support the families of World Trade Center victims.
"There is a tremendous outpouring of good efforts to help in these situations," he said. "They tried to strike fear into us but only emboldened the people of the city."
(Msgr. Byrne will give the homily at two Remembrance Masses at St. Francis de Sales parish in Loudonville on Sept. 7 at 4 p.m. and Sept. 8 at 10:30 a.m.)