When Pope Francis visits the National September 11 Memorial & Museum on Friday, members of the 9/11 community will be joining him.
The pontiff will be holding a multifaith meeting for peace in Foundation Hall Friday at 11:30 a.m.
The last column removed from the World Trade Center stands at the center of Foundation Hall where the Pope will preach. (John Munson/The Star-Ledger/Pool)
As WCBS 880’s Peter Haskell reported, when the first tower fell, EMT Dominic Heavey was lifted off the ground by a surging cloud of debris. He ended up under a truck.
“And I remember saying just anybody up there listening to me. I don’t care what God. What religion. Anybody at all just get me out of this,” he said.
Heavey is Catholic, but not religious. Yet he’s thrilled to have won tickets in the lottery system to attend the pope’s multi-religious service at the memorial.
“I’m getting an opportunity to be around a man that is supposed to be closest to the guy up above,” he said, adding that the memories of that day still haunt him. “I’d like to get peace. I’d like to get some sort of comfort.”
Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis and longtime chaplain to the FDNY, said last week that there is no more appropriate place for the pope to visit and for clergy of different faiths to come together as one.
“Obviously those who sought to destroy us on 9/11 didn’t want us to practice our respective traditions, they wanted us not to be together, so we answer that horror by saying we are going to be one family,” said Potasnik, who will attend the meeting. “I think us being together with him offering a special blessing and a message will be a resounding response to what occurred on 9/11.”
Carol Freund will also see the pope at the Memorial.
“I think this will be very healing and that’s the place to have it happen,” she said.
Freund’s brother, Peter, was an FDNY lieutenant. She said though she’s not religious, she feels the pope is about love and healing.
“But I think the message that he sends is universal,” Freund said.
When the pope comes to the museum he will see about a dozen artifacts of faith, including a piece of steel that had a fragment of the New Testament fused to it from the heat. It’s open to the Book of Matthew, Chapter 5.
The pope will be in New York City from September 24 to September 26.
During his brief stay, Francis will also address world leaders at the U.N., participate in a procession through Central Park, visit an East Harlem school and celebrate Mass at Madison Square Garden.
To see a complete schedule of the pope’s upcoming visit, click here.
You can watch all of the Pope’s events on CBS2 and on CBSNewYork.com.
