Pope Francis Prays for 9/11 Victims at Interfaith Service in NYC

Pope Francis made it his mission to mend broken hearts Friday when he made his papal pilgrimage to the saddest spot in New York City.

With a handshake and a few quiet words, Francis consoled some of the still-inconsolable relatives of those who perished at the hands of terrorists in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Francis also remembered the heroic cops and firefighters who were killed on that awful day.

“We ask you in your goodness to give eternal light and peace to all who died here,” the Pope said in his halting English while standing near the underground flood wall that survived the 2001 terrorist attacks.

“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 September 11, 2001.”

It was Francis’ first visit to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the setting for the interfaith service.

And it came after Francis took his campaign to combat global warming to the floor of the United Nations General Assembly on his first full day in New York City.

For those who needed comfort the most, the very fact that Francis was there was a balm.

“It speaks volumes, the kind of person that he is, his heart, his soul, his desire to be with and among people who are experiencing some sort of tragedy, even 14 years later,” said Anthoula Katsimatides, whose brother John was killed on 9/11.

Pope Francis places a white rose after praying for victims Friday at the September 11, 2001 memorial in New York.

"He's the Holy Father for a lot of us, who aren't even Roman Catholics,” said Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles was a pilot on the plane that hit the Pentagon. “For me his coming here is acknowledging the best of humanity. We saw a lot terrible things on 9/11 and the world responded with great love and compassion. He's acknowledging that with us.”

Among those Francis met with were widows Virginia Bauer, whose husband David perished in the North Tower, and Monica Iken-Murphy, whose husband Michael died in the South Tower.

“Everyone has a story here,” said a weeping 43-year-old Loretta Sabella, whose firefighter brother Thomas Sabella was killed. “I hope he brings peace to this place, where many have been suffering for the last 13 or 14 years.”

Francis also blessed wheelchair-bound NYPD Detective Terrance McGhee, a terror specialist who helped bring down Osama Bin Laden’s brother.

A solemn-looking Francis arrived at 11:11 a.m. and waved to the excited crowd while legions of police officers and Secret Service agents kept watch.

“Bless us!” some in the crowd yelled out. “If you don't bless us? Who will?!"

Francis went over to the pool where the South Tower once stood, then prayed silently and laid a white rose. He studied the inscribed names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks in New York, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field, as well as in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Then he shook hands with former mayor Michael Bloomberg and went over to speak to the grieving families.

Joining them were Mayor de Blasio, Gov. Cuomo, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and former mayor Rudy Giuliani. Then the Pope descended into the museum for a service that included Jewish, Muslim and other representatives of the world’s major religions.

“I can tell you, Papa Francesco, we in New York are sinners," Timothy Cardinal Dolan said at the start of the service. "We have many flaws. We make many mistakes."

But one of the city's strengths, Dolan said, is cultivating friendship and good will between people of different faiths. "Your prayer, your presence, and your words this morning inspire us."

Going back to his native Spanish, Francis said at the service, “I feel many different emotions standing here at Ground Zero, where thousands of lives were taken in a senseless act of destruction.”

“Here grief is palpable,” he said.

Francis called the water flowing into the pools where the Twin Towers once stood “the silent cry of those who were victims of a mindset which knows only violence, hatred and revenge.”

May God bring “peace to our violent world” and to “turn to your way of love” those who justify killing in the name of religion, Francis said.

One of the most haunting moments of the service was when Cantor Ari Schwarz sang a Jewish prayer for the fallen, his soaring voice echoing through the museum.

Before he left, the Pope viewed the famous 9/11 cross — two pieces of steel that fused together after the attacks — and which became a focal point at Ground Zero.

After lunch, the Pope heads uptown to Our Lady Queen of Angels School in East Harlem to meet with immigrants and poor children.

Later, Francis will be cheered on by 80,000 New Yorkers in Central Park during a procession down West Drive from 72nd St. to 60th St.

Francis will finish his busy day by celebrating Mass at Madison Square Garden. On Saturday morning, Francis flies from Kennedy Airport to Philadelphia.

Earlier Friday, Francis condemned the “misuse and destruction of the environment” and the “culture of waste” on the UN floor.

It was a message Francis had hammered home earlier this week during his White House speech and which he repeated again before the world body.

“We human beings are part of the environment,” the Buenos Aires-born pontiff said, speaking in his native Spanish. “Any harm done to the environment, therefore, is harm to humanity.

Mankind, he said, “is not authorized to abuse it, nor is he authorized to destroy it.”

Without naming any names, Francis also accused the world’s powerful countries of a “selfish and boundless thirst” for money.

Francis said this is not just destroying the planet, but it’s making paupers of the weak and disadvantaged.

“We are dealing with real men and women who live and struggle and suffer,” he said. “To enable these real men and women to escape from extreme poverty, we must allow them to be dignified agents of their own destiny.”

The poor, Francis said, have an inherent right to what he called the “three L’s” — lodging, labor and land.

The Pope also said women and girls have a “right to education.”

That statement cheered 18-year-old Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani education activist who survived being shot by a Taliban triggerman — and who was in the hall for the papal address.

Francis was the fifth pope to address the UN. His pro-environment message has been lauded by President Obama and Democrats but has angered some Republicans — especially those with ties to the oil industry who continue to insist global warming is myth.

The Pope also voiced support for another thing the GOP has fiercely objected to — the Iran nuclear agreement.

Calling it “proof of the potential for political good will,” Francis said he hopes “it will bring forth the desired fruits with the cooperation of all the parties involved.”

But Francis also gave social conservatives something to applaud by subtly underscoring the Catholic church’s continued objection to gay marriage, abortion and birth control.

Before Francis addressed the big shots, he met with some 400 janitors, cooks, electricians and secretaries and other workers who keep the UN going and thanked them for making “possible many of the diplomatic, cultural, economic and political initiatives.”
“Be close to one another, respect one another,” he said. Then he asked the workers to pray for him.

That humble request by the leader of the Catholic Church prompted a round of cheers, and a broad grin creased the holy man’s face.

The Vatican flag was flying above the UN when Francis arrived. He was greeted at the world body by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

“Thank you for your spiritual guidance ... and love for humanity,” he said.

Then the Pope signed the UN visitors’ book. The pontiff took a white card from his pocket and copied a lengthy message into the bound book. It was not immediately clear what he wrote.

When Francis was done, the UN chief showed the pontiff a Norman Rockwell image on the wall called “The Golden Rule” which bears the famous words: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

That was a theme Francis sounded on Thursday during his historic address to a joint session of Congress in which he urged lawmakers to embrace the migrants heading north to the U.S. in search of a better life — and the refugees fleeing to Europe to escape the civil war in Syria.

Francis had been invited to speak to the body by House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican and a Catholic. On Friday, he stunned his colleagues by announcing that he would give up both his leadership post and seat in Congress at the end of October.

Francis, who had never set foot in New York City before, landed in Gotham on Thursday to the strains of a Catholic high school band playing “New York, New York” and then headed into Manhattan for a prayer service at the newly refurbished St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

“As soon as you walked through the door, you became a New Yorker,” Dolan told the Pope.

Source: New York Daily News