Catholic News

Monsignor Roger Landry, director of the Pontifical Mission Societies USA and a longtime contributor to Church commentary and analysis at EWTN Global Catholic Network, said on Sept. 11 that he was taking a "temporary leave of absence" amid unspecified allegations from "multiple individuals."

There were "no allegations involving minors," the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, said on Sept. 11, while Landry in a statement further said there were "no allegations of sexual activity whatsoever."

The Fall River Diocese where Landry serves as a priest said in its statement that it had received allegations that included violations of priestly codes of conduct for both the Fall River Diocese and the Archdiocese of New York, the latter in which Landry currently serves.

Diocesan leaders determined "that sufficient evidence exists to restrict [Landry] from the public exercise of priestly ministry, pending the resolution of this matter," a decision it said was in line with its own policy.

The statement said Landry "is entitled to the presumption of innocence while the investigation continues."

In his own statement also released on Sept. 11, Landry said he himself opted for a voluntary leave of absence from the pontifical mission directorship, a departure he described as "temporary."

The priest said he had been told by the Fall River Diocese that the accusations "involve alleged violations of prudence, pastoral boundaries, and diocesan codes of conduct with adults."

"There are no allegations of sexual activity whatsoever or of misconduct of any kind with a minor," he said. "I maintain my innocence of any canonical violation or crime and will continue to defend my reputation to the best of my ability under the law of the Church."

"Those who have raised concerns deserve to be heard," he continued. "I am grateful that canon law respects my natural human right to be presumed innocent and the right to protect the good reputation I have enjoyed throughout the many years the Lord has given me the privilege to serve Him and His holy people."

He asked for prayers "for me and all those concerned," including Fall River Bishop Edgar Moreira da Cunha, SDV, as well as those involved with the investigation and "those who have brought these accusations."

In a separate statement on Sept. 11, the Pontifical Mission Societies USA said its chief operating officer Douglas Culp would serve as interim national director following Landry's leave of absence.

Landry, who was ordained to the priesthood by then-Fall River Bishop Seán Patrick O'Malley in 1999, has served a variety of prominent roles in the U.S. Church.

He was named by the Vatican as the national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies USA in September 2024. That position came after he had served a leadership role in that year's National Eucharistic Pilgrimage as a chaplain along the pilgrimage's Seton Route.

At the time of that appointment he was also serving as chaplain at Columbia University in New York, having been appointed there by Cardinal Timothy Dolan.

He had previously served at the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and was named a Missionary of Mercy by Pope Francis in 2016. He was named a monsignor by Pope Francis in 2024.

He has been a contributor to EWTN for many years, writing columns regularly for the National Catholic Register and frequently appearing as a guest on programs such as "Conversations with Consequences."

Landry has also served as an expert commentator for the network's television coverage, including during the 2025 conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.

In a statement on Sept. 11, Michael Warsaw, chairman of the board and CEO of EWTN Global Catholic Network, said EWTN was "deeply grateful for Monsignor Roger Landry's 27 years of faithful priestly ministry and service to the universal Church."

"We are heartbroken by this painful situation involving Monsignor Landry, a longtime friend and valued collaborator who has contributed greatly to the Network's mission of evangelization," Warsaw said. "EWTN takes concerns of this nature seriously and is following its established internal protocols while awaiting the outcome of the diocesan investigation."

"It is essential that those who have raised concerns be treated with dignity, respect, and pastoral care, and that Monsignor Landry be afforded fairness, a timely process, and the presumption of innocence," Warsaw continued, adding that the network holds "everyone involved in our prayers, asking that this matter be resolved in truth and charity, without unnecessary delay, and trusting that Monsignor Landry may soon return to active priestly ministry in service to the Church."

Canonical process involves investigation, diocesan review

Monsignor William King, a professor of canon law at The Catholic University of America, told EWTN News on Sept. 11 that typically in such situations a diocese will respond first by launching a preliminary investigation.

The diocesan bishop would appoint an investigator, which may or may not be a priest. "The investigator has pretty broad powers to ask questions and seek evidence, and then when that's finished, he would bring it back to the bishop and the bishop would decide if there's sufficient evidence to move on to the next step," King said.

The bishop would then likely consult with canon law experts. After the preliminary process is complete, King said, a bishop will determine whether or not to proceed with a penal process, which could involve a tribunal or else an administrative process.

Landry in his statement on Sept. 11 said he was told the process "might take up to several months."

"I am cooperating fully with the investigation, with trust that a fair investigation will establish the truth that the Lord promises will set us free," he said.

This story was updated on Sept. 11 at 2:20 p.m. ET with information from a statement by the Pontifical Mission Societies USA.

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British members of Parliament on Sept. 11 voted against a bill to legalize assisted suicide in England and Wales, bringing a two-year debate in Parliament on the issue to an end for now.

The bill, originally sponsored by Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Kim Leadbeater, proposed to legalize assisted suicide in England and Wales for people with a prognosis of six months or less to live.

Previously, the House of Commons passed the bill in 2024. Members again passed the bill in June 2025, and the House of Lords did not complete action on it before the session ended in April. Lauren Edwards of the Labour Party then reintroduced the bill in June.

"Throughout this debate, we have argued that our response to those facing serious illness, disability or the challenges of old age should be rooted in solidarity, care and respect," Archbishop John Sherrington of Liverpool said in a statement after the bill's 286-270 defeat on Sept. 11.

Ahead of the vote, Archbishop Richard Moth, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, called on the faithful to write to lawmakers to petition against the bill, calling it "wrong in principle."

"It is also deeply flawed and, if passed, could lead to vulnerable people feeling pressured into ending their lives," he said.

He detailed that the bill "has a serious lack of protection for health and social care staff and risks putting many wonderful hospices and care homes in the position of no longer being able to operate."

Following the vote, Sherrington, the lead bishop for life issues for the bishops' conference, thanked "those who wrote to their MPs to stop the bill's progression and who assisted the campaign against the bill in other ways."

Call for 'excellent' end-of-life care

Sherrington highlighted his gratitude for the work of disability rights groups and legal and healthcare professionals for raising a voice to uphold "the dignity and sanctity of every life."

"The true measure of a compassionate society is its willingness to support people through difficult circumstances rather than encouraging them to end their lives," he said.

"Every day, families, friends, carers and healthcare professionals demonstrate extraordinary generosity in accompanying and supporting those who are suffering. Their dedication reminds us of the value of human relationships and of our shared responsibility to care for one another, especially at life's most vulnerable moments," he said.

The archbishop noted that "the most effective way to address suffering at the end of life is through greater access to excellent palliative and end-of-life care."

"Ensuring such care is available to all who need it can help people experience comfort, dignity and support in their final days," he said.

"May all the sick and frail find comfort in the support of their loved ones, and the love of God, which transcends all suffering. I ask the Catholic community to continue to pray for our legislators, that they will ensure that our laws always uphold the dignity of human life," he said.

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Pope Leo XIV granted a Guadalupan jubilee year to mark the 50th anniversary of the dedication of the new Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City and the transfer of the image of the Virgin to the current shrine on Oct. 12, 1976.

Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes, primate archbishop of Mexico, announced that the grant was issued by the pontiff through the Apostolic Penitentiary.

The jubilee year will begin on Oct. 12, 2026, and end on Oct. 12, 2027. Aguiar indicated that this celebration will also coincide with the 131st anniversary of the pontifical coronation of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The cardinal invited the faithful to attend the Mass officially marking the start of this "time of jubilee grace," which will take place on Oct. 12 at noon at the Basilica of Guadalupe.

Plenary indulgence during the jubilee year

The archbishop explained that the plenary indulgence will be granted to the faithful who visit "with devotion and a contrite spirit the aacred house of St. Mary of Guadalupe and participate in a liturgical act or spend time in prayer at the basilica."

To receive it, they must also fulfill the usual conditions established by the Church: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, recitation of the Creed, and prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father.

The primate archbishop of Mexico encouraged Catholics to use this period as an opportunity for "spiritual renewal and conversion" under the protection of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

"May St. Mary of Guadalupe, mother of the true God through whom we live, help us to make the most of this jubilee and accompany us on this journey of spiritual renewal and conversion," he said.

The 'new basilica'

According to the Nican Mopohua account recording the apparitions of St. Mary of Guadalupe, the Virgin chose St. Juan Diego to convey a request to the first bishop of Mexico, Fray Juan de Zumárraga: the construction of a church "on the plain of Tepeyac."

Following the miraculous appearance on Juan Diego's tilma (cloak), de Zumárraga took the image to his private oratory, but a few days later, he placed it out for the veneration of the Mexican people.

By 1695, a simple hermitage had been established; its structure can still be seen today beside the altar of the Old Parish Church of the Indians. The tilma remained there until 1709, when it was moved to what is now called the Expiatory Temple of Christ the King — also known as the Old Basilica of Guadalupe.

By the 20th century — as Father Guillermo Schulenburg Prado, the former abbot of the Basilica of Guadalupe who championed the construction of the new church, explains in his memoirs — the "inadequacy of the old temple to meet liturgical, pastoral, and administrative needs" was evident.

Construction of the new basilica began in 1974, and on Oct. 12, 1976, the image of the Virgin was transferred to its new home.

This is how the Guadalupan jubilee year will begin

Celebrations will commence on Sunday, Oct. 11. Morning prayer (Lauds) and Mass will be celebrated at 8:30 a.m. local time, while Aguiar will celebrate the Sunday Mass at noon. Vespers for the dedication of the new basilica of Guadalupe will take place at 5 p.m.

On Monday, Oct. 12 — the day the jubilee begins — activities will start at 8:30 a.m. with morning prayer and the celebration of Mass.

At 11 a.m., a commemorative video regarding the transfer of the image of St. Mary of Guadalupe to the New Basilica and its dedication will be shown.

At noon, Aguiar will celebrate the traditional Mass of the roses and the opening of the Holy Door, formally marking the beginning of the Guadalupan jubilee year.

The day's events will continue at 5 p.m. with the archdiocesan rosary; at 6 p.m., a commemorative concert marking the 50th anniversary of the New Basilica will take place; and at 7 p.m., the rosary of Guadalupan love will be held.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

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Christchurch, New Zealand, Bishop Michael Gielen described the status of plans to rebuild the city's earthquake-damaged cathedral, with work likely to begin during the next few years.

In an interview with Colm Flynn on "EWTN News Nightly" that aired Sept. 10, Gielen said New Zealand's laity desired to rebuild their church.

"They want another one. They want something that they can celebrate in, and it can unify us," Gielen said. "So, we've responded. We've chosen a design; it's a Romanesque Gothic design, and we've now presented it to the people we've fundraised over. We're very hopeful that in the next few years we'll be able to get started and build it."

Worshippers used a temporary parish during the past 15 years since the 2011 earthquakes that collapsed buildings and killed nearly 200 people throughout the city.

Gielen said the restoration work has become a symbol of something larger — a reminder that the diocese's rebuilding is both physical and spiritual.

"It is a metaphor. Rebuild my church, but we're actually. It's not only the cathedral we're rebuilding. We lost 30 or 35 of our churches — damaged or demolished — in the last 15 years," Gielen said. "So, it's a real example of how faith is. There's a resurgence of faith in the West and in New Zealand as well."

Gielen said the rebuilding has stirred energy across the diocese.

"People are very excited, and it shows the wider community that our people are still hope-filled and they believe in this; and even secular society has gotten behind this, and they're very excited about it as well," he said.

A perpetual adoration chapel is going to be attached to the cathedral, Gielen said.

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VATICAN CITY — For centuries, "ad limina apostolorum" visits — the periodic pilgrimage of diocesan bishops to the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul and their meetings with the successor of St. Peter — have often been perceived primarily through an administrative or canonical lens.

In response to the 2021–2024 synodal process, however, Study Group 7 of the Synod of Bishops has proposed a significant structural and spiritual renewal of the visits from what it describes as a "missionary synodal perspective."

The study group is examining "Some Aspects of the Person and Ministry of the Bishop," including criteria for selecting candidates for the episcopate, the judicial function of bishops, and the nature and course of ad limina visits.

A call for missionary synodality

Rooted in Pope Francis' apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium and the final document of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, the study group argues that the ad limina visit should go beyond routine administrative reporting.

As the synod's final document states: "The visits ad limina Apostolorum are the apex of the relation between the Bishops of local Churches and the Bishop of Rome and his closest collaborators in the Roman Curia. Many Bishops desire that the way these visits are conducted will be reviewed to make them more and more an opportunity for open exchange and mutual listening" (No. 135).

Study Group 7 says the central purpose of revising the process is to ensure that "the ad limina visit should not concern itself primarily with matters relating to the internal administration of the particular Church, matters that can be addressed just as effectively through the ordinary contacts with the Curia."

Instead, the group says, the visits should, "in keeping with the biblical witness, support the mission that the Christian community is called to carry out in the world in which it lives, becoming an instrument at the service of the missionary conversion of ordinary pastoral ministry."

Theological grounding: The Church as the people of God and a communion of Churches

To explain the proposed renewal, Study Group 7 grounds its framework in the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council, particularly Lumen Gentium and Ad Gentes.

The ad limina visit historically developed within a theological understanding of the Church as a "communion of Churches," as described in Lumen Gentium 23. The relationship is based on reciprocal exchange between the particular Churches and the See of Rome.

The visit provides an opportunity for local pastors to give an account of the Church's mission and to share how the Gospel is proclaimed in different cultural contexts, while ensuring that these local expressions find their proper place within "Catholic unity," as described in Lumen Gentium and Ad Gentes.

At the same time, the visit serves the Petrine ministry by giving the bishop of Rome an opportunity to encourage his brother bishops while exercising Peter's unique primatial service.

As Vatican II teaches, the Chair of Peter "presides over the whole assembly of charity" and "protects legitimate differences, while at the same time assuring that such differences do not hinder unity but rather contribute toward it" (Lumen Gentium, 13).

Scripturally, the study group compares this dynamic to St. Paul's journeys to Jerusalem to meet Peter and the apostles, as recounted in Acts and Galatians, where the central concern was maintaining unity in faith while fostering missionary expansion among the nations.

Praedicate Evangelium, meanwhile, says structures such as episcopal conferences express a "Communio Episcoporum ... in service to the Communio Ecclesiae grounded in the Communio Fidelium."

Preparation in the particular Church: Convoking the people of God

One of the most significant elements of Study Group 7's proposal is the re-centering of the ad limina process within the entire people of God.

Rather than being an exercise restricted to the bishop and a small number of diocesan officials, preparation for the visit would begin in the local Church through a process of shared ecclesial discernment.

Study Group 7 states that before bishops travel to Rome, "it will be necessary for the Bishop to convoke the People of God so that they may engage co-responsibly in the preparation of the Preliminary Report through a process of ecclesial discernment, nourished by prayer and participation, in a manner corresponding to the various charisms, missions, and ministries."

That communal preparation would make use of existing participatory structures and involve "Priests, Deacons, Consecrated Men and Women, and Lay faithful, particularly within the various diocesan bodies, beginning with the Presbyteral Council and the Diocesan Pastoral Council."

By grounding the "Relatio Praevia," or Preliminary Report, in periodic local processes of evaluation and accountability, the group says moments such as the ad limina visit "must be understood and lived as events that involve, insofar as possible, all the members of the People of God."

The goal, it adds, is that "the People of God living within each local Church will come to perceive the ad limina visit as an event that directly concerns them."

Roman dialogue and returning home

In Rome, the focus would shift toward spiritual revitalization and collegial dialogue.

Rather than concentrating on formal briefings, Study Group 7 envisions an "exchange of gifts."

"The dialogue, understood as an 'exchange of gifts' and conducted in a collegial style, should be frank, cordial, and reciprocal rather than one-directional," the group states. "It should be capable of bringing to light both the strengths and the needs of the local Churches, while fostering the sharing of good practices."

To give greater expression to the participation of the people of God, the study group also says "it is desirable that a diocesan delegation accompany the Bishop during the ad limina visit, in whatever manner may seem most appropriate, giving preference to those who collaborated in its local preparation."

After returning home, the bishop and other delegates would report back to the local Church through public meetings, allowing diocesan participatory bodies to discern concrete pastoral steps flowing from the visit.

From canonical requirement to missionary instrument

By grounding ad limina visits more firmly in the image of the Church as the people of God, Study Group 7 seeks to turn what can be perceived primarily as an authoritative or bureaucratic requirement into an instrument of missionary synodality.

Under the proposal, the local Church would discern its mission together, send its pastor — potentially accompanied by representatives of the faithful — to meet the successor of St. Peter, and then receive the fruits of that encounter as a renewed impetus for evangelization.

In this vision, the ad limina visit becomes a more visible expression of co-responsibility, Catholic unity, and missionary conversion.

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Pope Leo XIV sent greetings to Rome's Jewish community as it prepares to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot in a telegram addressed to the city's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni.

"I wish to extend to you and to the entire beloved Jewish community of Rome my most heartfelt good wishes on the occasion of the solemn feasts you are preparing to celebrate. I hope that these celebrations will be an occasion of abundant blessings from the Most High and a source of joy," the pontiff wrote.

Rosh Hashanah begins the evening of Sept. 11, followed by Yom Kippur on Sept. 20 and Sukkot on Sept. 25.

"May the arrival of Rosh Hashanah bring with it the promise of serene renewal and the sweetness of an auspicious beginning; may the sacred silence of Yom Kippur be an occasion of peace and inner light; may the feast of Sukkot be filled with joy, gratitude and fellowship," the pontiff added.

"Renewing my esteem and that of the entire Church, I ask the Eternal One to grant that we may grow in mutual friendship, in our city of Rome and throughout the world. Shalom aleichem!" Leo XIV concluded.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

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Bishop Francisco Cota de Oliveira of Sete Lagoas, Brazil, has banned the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages at recreational events, fundraising activities, bingos, and cash-prize raffles held during religious festivals throughout his diocese.

"It is the Church's mission to exhort the faithful to bear witness to the virtues and to avoid vices," Cota stated in two decrees establishing the new rules. According to the bishop, "the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that vices can be classified according to the virtues they oppose."

"The virtue of temperance disposes one to avoid every kind of excess, including the abuse of alcohol," the bishop said. The catechism also states that "it is praiseworthy to impose restitution "to correct vices and maintain justice."

Sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages

Cota cited Document 100 of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB, by its Portuguese acronym), which states: "The sale and consumption of alcohol at patron saint festivals and other religious events stand in contrast to the Church's efforts to combat drug abuse. There is an urgent need for the conversion of parish communities to avoid the counter-witness of promoting alcohol consumption at stalls and other community recreational activities."

According to the bishop, "Pope Francis' encyclical Amoris Laetitia, on the family, views drug addiction as one of the scourges of our time — one that causes suffering for many families and, not infrequently, ends up destroying them."

Ban on bingo games and raffles with cash awards

In a second decree, Cota stated that "bingo games and other raffles offering cash awards tend to lead people into addiction to various forms of gaming and betting." He further pointed out that, "under current legislation, holding unauthorized raffles and conducting bingo games constitute criminal misdemeanors, as defined in Article 51 of Law 3.688/41 and Article 50 of Law 3.688/41, respectively."

The bishop noted that Amoris Laetitia regards "games of chance and other addictions as scourges of our time that cause suffering for many families and, not infrequently, end up destroying them." The bishop's decree also cites CNBB Document 114, which draws attention to gambling addiction, noting that it "causes great suffering and indebtedness within countless families and in society."

According to Cota, "tithe offerings and spontaneous contributions from the faithful are the proper means for the Church's financial maintenance."

"Should it become necessary to conduct a donation drive offering prizes to participants, or to hold recreational raffles, the prizes must consist of small gifts and household items," the bishop decreed.

This story was first published by ACI Digital, the Portuguese-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.

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Imagine trying to make your way down more than 70 floors of a burning skyscraper while supporting the weight of a woman you barely know. For Paul Carris, that was the reality he faced on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

Carris worked for the Port Authority, and his office was on the 71st floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. That morning, before going to work, he had attended 8 a.m. Mass at a small chapel near Battery Park.

Shortly afterward, he was sitting at his desk overlooking Manhattan when he heard the roar of a jet engine. Before he could process what was happening, there was an enormous impact. Flames and debris began falling outside his window.

"The building tilted, and it tilted so much, books fell off my bookshelf, and for a split second, I thought it was gonna keep going over," Carris told me in a recent interview. As people ran for the stairs, he noticed a woman in distress. Her name was Judith Toppin. She suffered from sarcoidosis and had a defibrillator in her chest. She was struggling physically.

At that moment, Carris made a split-second decision that would define the rest of their lives. Supporting her on one side, while she clung to the banister on the other, he began the long, slow descent with her — 70 stories, one step at a time.

Toppin was moving slowly and Carris knew they had a long way to go. Yet what is striking is how calm they said the people on the stairwell remained.

'The Lord is my shepherd'

In 2001, there were relatively few cellphones and no social media.

People watching news coverage of the attacks on television in Australia knew more about what was happening than those inside the towers.

Carris and Toppin did not know that a passenger jet had deliberately struck the building. They did not know another plane had hit the South Tower. And they had no idea that the building they were in was about to collapse.

Then, partway down, something incredible happened.

"Judith was really struggling, and suddenly she started to pray out loud, 'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.' And when she started doing that, I said, 'I better start praying, too.'"

Eventually they emerged from the tower and stepped onto the street.

"When we got out, it was like the Twilight Zone. There was complete chaos."

As they moved away, Carris began to realize that among the surrounding debris were the bodies of people who had fallen or jumped from the towers.

He told Toppin not to look at the ground, just to look ahead and muster up the last bit of energy she had to get away. Then, when they were barely a block away, the North Tower, from which they had just escaped, came crashing down.

Toppin would later write an essay called "Angels Walk Among Us," describing Carris as the man who saved her life. But as he would eventually tell me, he soon realized that it was actually Toppin who saved him.

Recently I traveled through New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington making an EWTN News documentary to mark the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11. I wanted to remember what happened that day, but also to ask a more difficult question: Where was God in the midst of such evil?

The stories I would go on to hear from priests and religious who responded on that day, and how faith helped survivors and family members of victims cope, provided a lot of inspiration. In midtown Manhattan, not far from where the Twin Towers once stood, I sat down with Franciscan Father Brian Jordan, who ministered for months at Ground Zero after the attacks.

He remembered seeing the very best and the very worst of humanity side by side.

"We saw goodness at its best. We also saw evil at its worst," he told me. "But good always triumphs over evil."

He watched firefighters, police officers, construction workers, and volunteers work together in the ruins. When human remains were found, work would stop, and prayers would be said.

But there's one image that stayed with him the most. Days after the attacks, a construction worker approached him and said, "Hey, Father, you wanna see God's house?" He led Jordan into the wreckage, where there were two steel beams, one standing vertically, the other horizontally. "Oh my God, it was the shape of a cross," Jordan remembered. "God meant this for a reason. Now I know why you call this God's house."

Jordan remembers that for everyone at Ground Zero that steel-beamed cross became a powerful sign that faith had not disappeared beneath the rubble and that God was with them.

Shanksville's sacred stillness

In contrast to the rumble and noise of lower Manhattan, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, is quiet and tranquil. As I stood overlooking the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93, I looked at the trees, rolling fields, and an enormous expanse of sky. There is an almost sacred stillness to the place. It is difficult to imagine an airliner hurtling toward this peaceful patch of Pennsylvania before smashing into the ground.

But in the minutes before that impact, something extraordinary happened aboard the aircraft. Through telephone calls, passengers knew their plane was part of a terrorist attack and decided to fight back.

Todd Beamer asked a telephone operator to pray the Lord's Prayer with him before he attempted with other passengers to storm the cockpit and try to overthrow the hijackers. And because of their brave efforts, rather than the plane hitting the White House or Capitol Hill, killing hundreds if not thousands more, the plane crashed at 500 miles an hour, completely upside down, here into this field.

Father Joseph McCaffrey, a Catholic priest and FBI chaplain, arrived at the crash site the following morning.

"When I first arrived the trees were still smoking. And the first thing I did when I came was I prayed, and I consecrated the ground. I prayed the prayers of interment for all who perished here," he tells me there at the site. And as grieving families began arriving, McCaffrey was there to meet them.

"My approach was to listen, and then based on what I heard, I would offer a word of the hope of eternal life, of God's ultimate compassion and mercy, and that they're not alone, that God enters into their suffering."

From Shanksville, my journey took me back toward Washington and the Pentagon. The Pentagon Memorial feels more intimate. Beside the enormous military headquarters are 184 individual memorial units, one for each person killed there and aboard American Airlines Flight 77.

Each consists of a cantilevered bench above a shallow pool of flowing water, arranged according to the ages of the victims.

The benches are pointed toward the direction in which the plane flew that morning.

Newly ordained

Father Stephen McGraw was a newly ordained priest when he was stuck in traffic near the Pentagon that morning. He sat in his car as the plane flew so low overhead that it struck a lamppost. Moments later, he watched it smash into the Pentagon. He immediately ran toward the Pentagon.

Sitting with me on one of the memorial benches, he said, "I had the sense that God had placed me there. This is what I've signed up for. I want to give the sacraments. But it was beyond anything that I had done. It was just that God had placed me there as an instrument, a humble, weak servant priest at his disposal to be a witness of his closeness and his presence, to say that God was here."

For those on board the plane, or in the direct area of impact, there was no hope of survival, but other victims ran from the building onto the Pentagon lawn, many with horrific burns. They lay down in the grass in agony, and while paramedics ran around from person to person, McGraw knelt beside them. "I was telling them, 'Jesus is with you.' And I repeated that to them several times, and more than once, there was actually a positive response."

He remembered kneeling beside one badly burned man as medics worked to save him. "I said to him, with more conviction, with more vigor, I said, 'I tell you, Jesus is with you now.' And I remember he said, 'Yes, I know.'"

Back in New York, Paul Carris, the Port Authority worker who escaped the North Tower with Judith Toppin, told me that for years after 9/11, the trauma of that day affected him deeply. But something else troubled him too. Toppin kept portraying him as an angel, as the man who had done everything right. It forced Carris to look at the way he had been living his own life.

"I had to face up to the fact that I had not always lived my life like the Catholic that I was being portrayed as. I separated my faith from the secular world. It has caused some issues in my marriage over the years, and so on. And Judith wrote this piece that described me as an angel."

Carris began therapy with a priest and later attended a spiritual retreat. This had a profound effect on him, and in time his faith deepened and he entered formation for the permanent diaconate for the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey. Judith, who died in 2021, was there when he was ordained.

"She said to me, 'You saved me,' and I replied, 'No, you saved me. In fact, God saved both of us that day.'"

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News, and has been adapted by EWTN News.

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Bishops across the country issued remarks, reflections, and prayers for the United States and the lives lost in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks 25 years ago. 

"Twenty-five years later, its memory lives on; in a new skyline, in simple plaques and great memorials, and in the photographs of first responders who were lost, still displayed outside of firehouses and police stations," Archbishop Ronald Hicks of New York said in a statement.

"We remember those who died and the extraordinary courage, service, sacrifice, and compassion that followed," Hicks said.

Hicks will celebrate an invitation-only Vigil Mass on Sept. 10 at St. Patrick's Cathedral to commemorate all those affected by the terrorist attacks. It also will be available via livestream.

The archdiocese reported the Mass will remember those who died as a result of the tragedy and mourn with their loved ones.

In honor of the anniversary, the archdiocese also shared words from Cardinal Edward Egan, who served as New York's archbishop in 2001 and died in 2015.

"We will not pretend that words can deal with this adequately. The healing will take time, as it always does," Egan said. "Still, we insist that the extraordinary goodness of our people has marched alongside the pain and the hurt."

"Amidst the tragedy, the sadness and the grief, there was this real genuine kindness and fraternal love in the city of New York of all places," Bishop John Bonnici of Rochester, New York, previously said in an interview with the diocese's news publication.

"The Lord was able to use people to reach out to others and allow for the healing that was so necessary," said Bonnici, who served as a priest in New York at the time of the attack.

In the nation's capital, the faithful also will gather to remember those who died. Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who leads the Archdiocese for the Military Services,  USA, will celebrate Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., inside its Crypt Church.

The Mass will "honor the brave first responders and members of our Armed Forces who answered the nation's call in its aftermath, and entrust to the mercy of God all affected by that tragic day," the basilica reported.

It will be held at the 5:15 p.m. on Sept. 11 and will be livestreamed.

President of U.S. bishops encourages commitment to be 'instruments of peace'

Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City invited Catholics to join "in prayer for the victims taken from us in acts of unjustifiable violence 25 years ago at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in rural Pennsylvania."

"In a special way, we lovingly embrace in prayer the victims' families and friends, who still mourn the irretrievable loss of their loved ones on that day," said Coakley, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

"We also remember the first responders and emergency workers, so many who gave their lives in selfless acts of courage," he said in the statement.

Coakley said that amid the fear and uncertainty following the attacks, "our faith lifted us up and sustained us," as the nation turned to God in prayer with "a new intensity and a sense of unity."

"As conflicts intensify around the world, let us renew our commitment to be Christ's instruments of peace in an increasingly fractured and divided world," Coakley said.

He echoed Pope Leo XIV, who said peace "is more than just a goal, it is a presence and a journey."

Bishops offer personal reflections of 9/11 attacks

Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, who was then the bishop of Bridgeport, Connecticut, reflected on Sept. 11, calling it an "unthinkable morning."

After learning about the attacks, "I quickly realized that many of my parishioners worked in the World Trade Center," Lori wrote in an article for the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

"Driven by an urgent need to be with my flock, I arranged to offer Mass at St. Augustine Cathedral in Bridgeport. As the hours unfolded, I also celebrated unannounced, yet well attended, Masses at St. John's in Stamford and St. Thomas Aquinas in Fairfield."

Throughout the day, Lori met "incoming trains from New York, simply to stand with commuters emerging dazed and traumatized by what they had witnessed," he said.

Lori also said he checked local hospitals for burn victims but realized "the vast majority had not survived."

"What followed was a relentless, agonizing search through the rubble," Lori said. "As names were identified, the agonizing weeks of funerals began. I sat with spouses, children and parents trying to make sense of the unimaginable."

"Nearly 3,000 souls perished that day, including 343 firefighters, 72 law enforcement officers and 55 military personnel, followed by thousands more responders whose later illnesses stemmed from their selfless recovery efforts at Ground Zero," he said.

"To truly honor those we lost and the legendary courage of our first responders, we must never forget," Lori said. "Let no one believe that terrorism or violence can ever resolve injustice."

Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport also recalled his experience and what his community taught him afterward.

"Twenty-five years is long enough for a wound to close into a scar, and long enough for a generation to grow up knowing that morning only as a chapter in a textbook. It is not nearly long enough for the families I serve," Caggiano said.

"In Fairfield County the loss has never been abstract. Our trains carried neighbors into those towers, and that evening they came back with empty seats," he said.

"In the years since, I have sat with some of them: parents who lost children, children who were infants then and are grown now, colleagues who still wonder why they were late to work that day," he said.

Caggiano said they have taught him numerous lessons, including "that resilience is not the same thing as moving on" and "that fear must not be allowed to govern us."

"The third lesson is the hardest, and I offer it carefully," Caggiano said. "It is mercy."

"It is not forgetting, excusing, or indifference to justice. Justice without mercy becomes vengeance, and mercy without justice becomes indulgence. Forgiveness begins with a full acknowledgment of the wound and then refuses to let that wound dictate the rest of a life," he said.

"It is not a feeling that arrives one morning but a deliberate decision, sometimes one that must be made again and again over years," he said.

Ukrainian Catholic bishops: 'What is the legacy of September 11?'

The Ukrainian Catholic Bishops of the United States issued a pastoral letter   about the attack and the legacy it left.

The bishops said Christians must do more than remember. They asked: "What is the legacy of September 11? What have we learned? What can that terrible day teach us today?"

The tragedy "confronts us with the terrible reality of the capacity of fallen humanity for evil," they said. "When hatred is allowed to take possession of the human heart, when another person is no longer seen as a child of God but as an enemy to be destroyed, the consequences can be horrifying."

Sept. 11 also revealed "an even greater capacity for goodness, courage, compassion, sacrifice and love," the bishops wrote.

"We saw strangers helping strangers. We saw firefighters climbing stairways toward almost certain death. We saw ordinary people performing extraordinary acts of courage. We saw communities opening their doors, people donating blood, churches filling with worshippers, and a nation and the entire world coming together in grief and solidarity," he said.

"Even in the midst of tragedy, God gives us opportunities to become instruments of His love," they said.

The bishops concluded with the words of St. Paul: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

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Bishop Robert Boxie reflected on why the United States has so few Black Catholic bishops, citing "racism" as the short answer.

"I really enjoy the gift of a Black Catholicism, Black Catholic spirituality, and it certainly does have a place in the universal Church," said Boxie, an auxiliary bishop of Washington.

Boxie is a former lawyer and graduate of Vanderbilt University and Harvard Law School. He is now the youngest bishop in the United States.

"The last time that an African American bishop had been ordained was 10 years prior. When I was appointed a couple of months ago, I became the second African American bishop in the entire United States," Boxie explained in an interview with "Vatican Access," a Catholic News Service podcast.

"We have a total of four active Black bishops, but there are only two African American bishops," he said. "We need Black bishops in the United States … And I am OK with being a voice for the Black community that needs to be in the hierarchy of the Church."

When asked why there are so few Black bishops, Boxie said: "The short answer is racism."

"People may not want to hear that. People may not agree with that. But the short answer is racism."

"For a long time, Black men were not accepted or allowed in seminary," he said. "We had the first recognized African American priest, Father Augustus Tolton, Venerable Augustus Tolton, whose cause for canonization is currently underway ... But it took so much more than an arm and a leg for him to even be … allowed to study for the priesthood."

"So after him, it was a while before dioceses, and bishops, and religious communities would accept African American men. And when they did accept them, they experienced racism and discrimination and injustice and all the things that we would not associate, or should not associate with, the Church."

Racism within the Church

Boxie shared his own personal experience with racism in the Church, even during his time in seminary.

"There was a time in seminary where my next-door neighbor … had a Confederate flag in their room and … I was totally taken aback by that," Boxie said.

"I would never go in his room … We would talk outside in the hall. I wouldn't go in his room as long as he had that flag up," Boxie said.

"Eventually he did take it down and he eventually discerned out of seminary. And so we didn't really talk … much about it."

About seven years later, "during COVID, during 2020, and the summer of George Floyd … all of these things were sort of being revealed and uncovered in the United States — disparities within our country."

During that time, he said, "I got a Facebook message from him saying that … he was working at a Catholic school with a large minority population, large number of African American students and Hispanic students."

"He realized, for himself, how wrong that was seven years prior for him to have that Confederate flag in his room, especially at a seminary. And he wanted to have a conversation to apologize."

"We had a really wonderful conversation" and "I accepted his apology," Boxie said. "We had a real honest conversation about race, the Church, and how we can be healers."

The conversation addressed "how we can help to bridge these gaps, these disparities, the misunderstanding, all the things that pull us apart, how we can in fact be healers and bridge builders in the Church," Boxie said.

In the interview, Boxie noted other areas where Black Catholics lack presence in the Church, specifically noting "images" in Catholic churches.

"In our churches, we often only see white saints," he said. "I have no problem with that. There's nothing wrong with that. But that's not the only view, or the only image, or icon of holiness that we can aspire to."

He noted that seven Black Catholics who lived in the United States are currently in line for canonization.

"I feel as though every parish in the United States should have images of them in their church in some form or fashion, because these were Americans who were raised and formed in this country who have an authentic … Catholic American spirituality," he said.

The Church has the answers on race

Boxie has previously said that "culture does not have the answers" in regard to race. In his recent interview, he was asked whether the Church has the answers, to which he said that it does.

It's "not just Catholic social teaching, which … Pope Leo very beautifully expresses in Magnifica Humanitas, but this goes all the way back to the very beginning … just the dignity of the human person."

"That's a core tenet of what we believe as Catholics and certainly part of the foundation for Catholic social teaching."

It is about "the human person being made in the image and likeness of God, with an inherent dignity, an infinite dignity, a magnificent dignity that transcends race and culture and geography and language and land," Boxie said.

"The Church has proclaimed, from the beginning, the dignity of the human person — that's from her teaching, her doctrine, Scriptures. The problem is that we have not always been faithful to that."

"When we have turned away from that, or when we have been unfaithful to that teaching and gone astray, then that's when problems such as this racism have arisen," Boxie said.

Being labeled a 'DEI bishop'

Boxie also addressed the subject of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), which he said has been "hijacked."

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are "biblical" concepts and are "part of our Catholic tradition," he said. DEI was originally "trying to correct a number of institutional wrongs that have occurred in our country," in employment, education, housing, healthcare, and other "disparities."

Now, Boxie said he believes there is a "negative association" with DEI.

It is now seen as taking "something away from a white person who deserves it, who merits" and "giving it to a Black person, or a brown person, or a minority who doesn't deserve it, who doesn't merit it. That's what the association is right now, and it's just not true."

"Some people may believe that I have been selected, picked, because I'm Black," Boxie said about his appointment as bishop.

"I've thought about this, I've reflected on this. And you know what? I'm actually OK with that … because I think my background, my formation, my experience, even though it has been … limited, I think it has prepared me for this moment."

"I do fundamentally believe that even though in my mind ... we never feel ready for whatever the Lord calls us to, but I know that he … has been providing the grace."

Also, "we need Black bishops in the United States," he said. "We need the voice of African American bishops, men in the hierarchy in the Church structure to be more of an advocate for the Black Catholic community."

"I think that the pope has realized that this voice needs to be at the table. And what better way to have a Black Catholic voice than a Black Catholic bishop?"

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