On September 11, 2001, the United States suffered the greatest terrorist attack ever on American soil, with almost 4,000 dead.
As I wrote a few days ago (see "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?"), loss of life on that scale has, thankfully, not been repeated every day in the ten years since September 11. Yet over the course of those ten years, an even larger number of American servicemen and women have died in Iraq, fighting a war that is (at best) only tangentially related to the events of September 11, and which has been condemned, repeatedly, by the last two popes. And the casualties among civilian Iraqi men, women, and children have topped 100,000.
"It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins" (2 Maccabees, 12:46). Today, as we remember those who have died over the past ten years, let us pray for the repose of their souls.
(Pope Benedict XVI prays during a ceremony with family members of some of those who were killed on 9/11 at the Ground Zero site April 20, 2008, in New York City. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Prayers for the Dead:
More on September 11 and the Iraq War:
- Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?
- Pope Benedict XVI Visits Ground Zero
- What Is the Papacy's Response to the War in Iraq?
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