WWW.THEFLORIDACATHOLIC.ORG | Sept. 13-26, 2019 | Volume 80, Number 21 Memories of attacks still linger for fire department chaplain ALLYSON ESCOBAR Catholic News Service9/11 BROOKLYN, N.Y. | Msgr. John Delendick, a longtime New York Fire Department chaplain who is currently pastor of St. Jude Church in Brooklyn, remembers Sept. 11, 2001, vividly. At the time of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Msgr. Delendick had just finished cel- ebrating Mass at St. Michael’s Church in Brooklyn where he was pastor. He jumped in his car and drove as close as he could get and then walked to the scene. When he got to the twin towers, he ran into other fire department colleagues, including first deputy commissioner William Feehan, who was later killed in the collapse. He also gave absolution to a police officer who ran to him amid a dark cloud of debris and smoke, asking the priest to hear his confession. He also recalls learning that his colleague and fellow fire chaplain, Franciscan Father Mychal Judge, was among the first known victims of the South Tower’s collapse. “That day, I don’t even know the order of what all happened ... Someone just handed me (Father Judge’s) helmet and told me he was killed,” he told The Tablet, newspaper of the Diocese of Brooklyn. The hardest thing of that day, he said, was people asking him if he had seen their friends, fathers, brothers and sons -- firefighters and first responders at the scene -- and not knowing how to respond. It wasn’t until after returning from ground zero that the priest and many families would realize that their friends and loved ones had died. Msgr. Delendick didn’t get back to his parish until 2 a.m. Sept. 12. As fire department chaplain, in between celebrating memorial Masses for the fallen, Msgr. Delendick would visit “the pile” at ground zero in the months that followed, accompanying fami- lies in their search for loved ones. That first year after 9/11, he doesn’t remember how many funerals and memorial Masses he said. “It’s just, you get so many of these funerals, and it just gets to you after a while. … I love the job, but I also hate it,” he said. Every year since the at- tacks, the New York Fire Department remembers and honors the heroes, especially those who have died years later from illnesses attributed to 9/11. This Sept. 6 the department added the names of 22 firefighters and recovery workers to the New York Fire Department World Trade Cen- ter Memorial Wall inside its Brooklyn headquarters. One victim of a 9/11 illness honored on the memorial wall was Lt. Timothy O’Neill, a Catholic who died in April after battling pan- creatic cancer for two years. O’Neill worked for several months at ground zero during the cleanup efforts. “My husband risked his life, and he paid the ultimate sacrifice 18 years later,” said his widow, Paula O’Neill. “It was a complete shock because he never had any symptoms, but then one day he went for a CT scan. … He always thought he would get sick after breathing in everything, sometimes without a mask. He just didn’t really talk about it, and we never expected the severity of the cancer.” With the help of the federally funded September 11th Victims Compensation Fund, O’Neill was able to be re- ceive treatment for his cancer from his Florida home. “I still have firemen to this day calling, crying to me,” Paula said. At the Brooklyn ceremony, Father Joseph Hoffman, pastor of St. Barbara in Brooklyn, who also is a New York Fire Department chaplain, read a Bible passage which said: “The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces.” The priest said that working with the fire department is “like serving another par- ish” and he is honored to work with these men and women. n Clockwise from top, Franciscan Father Brian Jordan, standing with laborers and emergency workers Oct. 5, 2001, blesses a 17-foot-tall cross formed by steel beams that was recovered from the rubble of the World Trade Center. (KATHY WILLENS, REUTERS | CNS) This stained-glass window located in New Jersey’s Carlstadt Memorial Municipal Building was dedicated Sept. 11, 2017, in honor of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. (OCTAVIO DURAN | CNS) A photo of a firefighter and Franciscan Father Mychal Judge, a chaplain with the New York Fire Department, top, are seen July 7, 2015, on a beam from the World Trade Center at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City. Father Judge died while giving last rites to a firefighter in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. (BOB ROLLER | CNS) WWW.THEFLORIDACATHOLIC.ORG | Sept. 13-26, 2019 FLORIDACatholic ORLANDO DIOCESE Be Christ to others through hurricane relief GLENDA MEEKINS of the Florida Catholic staff A resident walks ORLANDO | After shredding the Baha- through mas mercilessly with torrential rains and debris savage winds, Hurricane Dorian skirted the left by Florida coast, leaving the Diocese of Orlando Hurricane relatively unscathed. The Carolinas were less Dorian fortunate. Central Floridians give thanks and in Marsh are mobilizing to assist both the Bahamas Harbour, and the Carolinas with the help of Catholic Bahamas, Charities of Central Florida. Sept. 2. As expected, emergency food and water (PHOTOS were brought to the Bahamas by the Red BY DANTE Cross and Catholic Charities followed. Prior CARRER, REUTERS to the hurricane, the Southeast region part- | CNS) ners (North and South Carolinas, Florida, Georgia, Virginia) and Catholic Charities of Florida directors discussed Dorian’s pro- jected path, where it would go and what they would do. “Now that we know we’ve been spared and that the Carolinas have been hit, we can talk about what kind of aid we can extend to the Carolinas,” said Gary Tester, president of Catholic Charities of Central Florida. “That can come in the form of mutual aid, where we can dispatch supplies we’ve gathered here through our state efforts. We can ship sup- plies up to the Carolinas and/or to the Baha- mas. Depending on the weather, we may also allocate staff.” After Hurricane Michael, Catholic Chari- ties sent Ken White, director of Agape Mis- sion Markets in Polk County, to assist the state emergency management specialist for the Florida Catholic Conference in determin- ing logistical distribution of supplies. Tester is prepared do so again, if necessary. Additionally, seven locations throughout the diocese are being prepared to be collec- tion sites for donations. “We are working on the logistics with each parish to help them with the collection pa- rameters they can manage best and then we’ll be sharing those lists on our website,” Tester said. He anticipates the first shipments head- ing to the Bahamas will not go out until Oct. 1 due to the massive devastation sustained by Above, Hurricane Dorian leaves buildings demolished in its the islands, leaving no safe place for planes to wake, Sept. 4, in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas.At right, destroyed land and many areas unreachable, even by cars are seen Sept. 2, 2019, in the aftermath of the storm. boat. The U.S. Coast Guard is limiting flights and ships into the Bahama islands. Circum- The Bahamas is a Catholic Relief Services encouraged people to recall Prayer #37 of In a Mass held at Catholic Charities Sept. stances are making possible storage locations site. Tester indicated Catholic Relief Services the Collect, For an End to Storms. It says, “We 6, he told employees they will be witnesses difficult to determine. will rely on Catholic Charities USA for assis- humbly entreat you, that the stilling of fear- by being “the face of Christ in this crisis.” Our “The delay is okay because they (Baha- tance. Because of its proximity to the U.S., the some storms may turn a powerful menace prayers and donations will also reveal Christ’s mas) don’t have the logistics in place to take Archdiocese of Miami and Catholic Charities into an occasion for us to praise you.” Many hands and feet. To do so, Bishop John Noonan emergency items in and store them, so we are regularly work in the Bahamas, therefore the heard the prayer during Mass the weekend has called for a Disaster Relief Collection. “We looking at the longer term needs to get this southeastern region also helps “direct cash prior to Hurricane Dorian’s Florida arrival. are called to assist our brothers and sisters in group of islands back up and functioning.” and supplies to the Bahamas, working with Father Aarons said this is “the first thing we the Bahamas and those who may be faced Tester said although relief will be ongoing the Archbishop and his staff there,” said Tes- who have been spared must do.” with the loss of their worldly possessions or for months, “I can comfortably say it will be ter. “Sometimes, we hear people say, ‘Oh, our economic livelihood,” he said. “The isolation years.” Floridians may find comfort in donat- prayers were answered.’ Then we could ask and fear caused by storms can be overwhelm- Tester is advocating cash donations be- ing and being spared of the hurricane’s ef- ourselves, does that mean that the prayers ing. We can bring them comfort as the body cause people on the ground can best de- fects, but Father Anthony Aarons, chaplain of the people of the Bahamas were not an- of Christ.” n termine what they most need and then buy for Catholic Charities of Central Florida and swered?” He assures, “It is a matter of know- those supplies.