“I feel many different emotions standing here at ground zero, where thousands of lives were taken in a senseless act of destruction,” Pope Francis said last Friday during his historic trip to visit the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. “Here grief is palpable.”
He greeted family members of some who were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. He also led an interfaith service at the museum Sept. 25.
In a message to God at what he called “the scene of unspeakable violence and pain,” Pope Francis said, “we ask you in your goodness to give eternal light and peace to all who died here: the heroic first responders: our firefighters, police officers, emergency service workers, and Port Authority personnel, along with all the innocent men and women who were victims of this tragedy simply because their work or service brought them here on Sept. 11, 2001.”
It was Pope Francis’ first U.S. visit, which drew massive crowds everywhere he appeared including in Lower Manhattan.
