There’s no way this isn’t intentional. It’s pretty outrageous in light of the sacrifice of Fr. Mychal Judge on 9-11.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has refused to invite any member of the clergy to have a role in the ceremony marking ten years after the WTC attack. Here’s the thing -if it was an accident or an oversight it would’ve been corrected when it came to light originally in the Wall Street Journal but it seems that Bloomberg is persisting.
To be honest, I don’t think it’s so much anti-Christian as it is political correctness and political calculation. But I’m not letting them off the hook here. I think that for many in politics, faith doesn’t play a role in their lives so religions are something only that need to be handled or managed, and only reluctantly at that. I’d bet they were worried that if they invited a Catholic priest wouldn’t they also have to invite a Muslim imam to make things all equal and politically correct. So instead of dealing with that headache (and that would be a pretty big headache) they just said no clergy at all. And then patted themselves on the back for dodging that bullet.
But it still ignores the fact that Christianity played a large role in 9-11 from the thousands and thousands who rediscovered their faith through the tragedy, through the sacrific of Fr. Mychal Judge, and to those who saw that steel cross almost impossibly standing in the wreckage of the World Trade Center and were inspired.
“This is America, and to have a memorial service where there’s no prayer, this appears to be insanity to me,” said Rudy Washington, a former deputy mayor under Rudolph Giuliani. “I feel like America has lost its way.”
A spokewoman from Bloomberg’s office told The Journal that the focus, as in past years, will be on the family members of the fallen. Rabbi Joseph Potasnik told the paper he understood the mayor’s decision, saying, “I don’t know how to make it possible for everyone to have a place at the table.”
But opponents say faith played an important role in the country after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
There was a plethora of interfaith events, and New York Magazine even named New York Fire Department chaplain Mychal Judge, who died in the attack and is immortalized in a picture being carried from a tower, the “most famous victim of the World Trade Center attack.”
City Council member Fernando Cabrera, who is a pastor at a Bronx church, told The Journal he was “utterly disappointed” by the absence of clergy.
“They were the spiritual and emotional backbone, and when you have a situation where people are trying to find meaning, where something is bigger than them, when you have a crisis of this level, they often look to the clergy,” he said.
August 25, 2011 at 1:33 am
I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but don't forget the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas which was crushed by the falling South Tower and has heretofore been refused to be rebuilt by the Port Authority.
August 25, 2011 at 2:13 pm
Doesn't bother me in the least. This is going to be a pagan funeral festival anyway. Christians should stay away. I will remember this event by going to Mass at my church.
August 25, 2011 at 2:58 pm
Perhaps Archbishop Dolan should hold a memorial Mass at St Patrick's for the fallen of the EMTs, NYPD, and NYFD….it cannot fit everyone..maybe he can Yankee or Mets Stadium..provide for the people of NYC what there shortsighted mayor will not.
August 25, 2011 at 4:09 pm
Archbishop Dolan is doing so at Ground Zero at 12:30 and at St Patrick's that morning at 9:00 AM
August 25, 2011 at 5:36 pm
Yeah but you know what I DON'T want? A ceremony that has some lying sack of potatoes Imam standing there, reciting from the Koran. So if it means no public prayer at all to exclude them. So be it. We can pray elsewhere. (as noted above)
BTW, religionofpeace.com is another excellent website that catalogs how "peaceful" this religion is – and keeps count.
August 25, 2011 at 6:09 pm
It's Bloomberg. What else did you expect?
August 25, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Bloomberg is an obnoxious little Napoleon. The city will be well rid of him soon enough.
August 25, 2011 at 8:37 pm
On 16 August Mayor Bloomberg's office released a statement con-
firming that first responders– members of the police, EMT and
firefighters– were also not invited to attend the 9-11 ceremony.
Incredible.
So, if this anniversary has no religious/existential dimension that would
call for the inclusion of clergy and public prayer, and it will not include
representatives of the heroic first responders who rushed in and
died by the hundreds that day, then what is the ceremony for?
Well, there seems to be ample room for politicians and photographers.
August 25, 2011 at 8:39 pm
It never fails to abhor me how the ungodly co-opt the will of the people. If Bloomberg would bring back to life the victims of 9/11 he still would not have power to co-opt the will of the people as the victims were so many priests who responded to God’s call.
Did everyone see the grace and beauty of Father Mychal Judge’s consecrated hands?
August 25, 2011 at 10:23 pm
Abp. Dolan's events will be the "real" commemorations of 9-11. Bloomberg's thing is just a photo-op.
August 26, 2011 at 12:11 am
While Father Mychal Judge’s actions on 9/11 were heroic by any account, it would be a disservice to the Church to gloss over the…uh…irregularities in his ministry.
August 26, 2011 at 2:27 am
@Andrew: You have made some pretty horrific charges. Please be specific. Name names and crimes. You owe us that much and you owe Father Mychal Judge due process to clear his name. Otherwise, it is slanderous what you have written. BTW Crime and Virtue never, never cohabitate, so your charges are pretty slimy.
August 26, 2011 at 11:56 pm
I trust that Mayor Bloomberg will absent himself from the ceremony, lacking the said family relationship. To do otherwise would surely smack of political opportunism of the most shameless sort. Oh, wait…
September 4, 2011 at 1:06 am
Why not organize, via twitter or facebook or email or something, SPONTANEOUS recitation of the Lords Prayer DURING THE CEREMONY? What's Bloomberg going to do, arrest everyone saying it?
September 10, 2011 at 12:05 am
Here is an interesting post on this topic: http://www.unequally-yoked.com/2011/09/idiotic-interfaith-911-backlash.html?showComment=1315609281313#c251594899920726200
Thoughts?