(Ambassador Rooney Commemorates September 11)

Ambassador Francis Rooney and two other representatives of the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See attended a service organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio to mark the sixth anniversary of the attacks on America.  

On that dark day, America saw the face of evil as 19 men barbarously murdered people of many races, nationalities, and creeds. On September 11, America remembers the innocent victims, and pays tribute to the valiant firefighters, police officers, emergency personnel, and ordinary citizens who risked their lives for the sake of others.

Six years later to the day, Ambassador Rooney addressed a group of several hundred Sant'Egidio members and guests in Rome.  He applauded Sant’Egidio’s work for peace and reconciliation worldwide, and expressed appreciation for their commemoration of 9/11.  He shared the feeling of sorrow and shock at the tragedy, and spoke of how 9/11 and terrorism have touched people worldwide.  He also expressed sorrow for victims of terrorist attacks in London, Madrid, Jordan, and Sharm El Sheikh.

Ambassadors from Russia, Israel, UK, Cyprus, the Canadian Charge d’affaires, and members of Italy's security services also attended the commemoration service. 

Ambassador Francis Rooney of the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See observes a moment of silence at a memorial service dedicated to the victims of 9/11. Members of the Italian Security Services were also in attendance.

At a 9/11 commemoration service held at the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, Dom Matteo Zuppi of the Community of Sant’Egidio offered a prayer in memory of the victims of terrorism. 

He said, “On that day the power of evil became a wave of death.  How much sorrow for the desolation brought by evil!  What dismay and pity for so much innocent sorrow!  We must stop in front of the consequences of hatred and violence, for we feel it personally questions us. 

“Lord, save us,” was the invocation of those who saw the images of many poor men and women hit by violence; “Lord, save us” were the words, said aloud or written in their hearts, of those who were swept away or leapt through the air in despair.  “Lord, save them” was the request that poured forth spontaneously in front of the horror caused by that wind of death unleashed in a tragic spectacle of horror we will never grow used to. 

"It was a wave of unjustified violence that would be foolish or dangerous to minimize.  It questioned and does question everyone.  God’s most authentic name is peace.  Violence can never be justified or blessed in the name of God!  It is always a blasphemy!”

Sant’Egidio founder Andrea Riccardi addresses a memorial service dedicated to the victims of 9/11 at the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere.

 

Sant’Egidio founder Andrea Riccardi addressed memorial service dedicated to the victims of 9/11.  In addressing the group gathered in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, he said of that day, “For a few hours, all over the world, we gathered, ideally with our hearts, around those images, wanting to know.  We asked ourselves whether they were real or just fiction.  We felt more than ever close to the United States and to those who suffered.  We were all Americans, someone wrote.  […]  The world was like an immense community gathered around that event.

“There were 2996 people.  […]  They were men and women of all religions, of different ethnic origins.  There were also 327 non-Americans, more than 10% of the victims, coming from 53 countries.  Symbolically, the world was there.

“Facing the hatred of terrorism, that strikes blindly, we all felt our responsibility for a better world, a world where so many people no longer die only because they are American or work in that central and symbolic place in New York.  It should never happen again.

“I know:  it did happen again.  Just think of the many episodes of terrorism, Beslan, for instance, where children were attacked.  But elsewhere as well, in London, Madrid, in the Middle East.  But the list is not complete, and it would be much longer.

“The Community of Sant’Egidio felt challenged by that sorrow and part of that sense of borderless solidarity.  It continued to struggle for peace and the defeat of violence, as it can and knows, bare-handed.  We believe that evil cannot win and it can be defeated by the labourers of peace.”

Sant Egidio founder Andrea Riccardi addresses a memorial service dedicated to the victims of 9/11 at the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere

Ambassador Francis Rooney of the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See addresses a memorial service dedicated to the victims of 9/11.