Just one day after the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney reflected on the day in his homily at the most recent youth Mass and prayer gathering in St. Peter the Apostle Church in Parsippany Sept. 12. He asked the teenagers — who were not born yet on the day of the attacks — what are some of the lessons they have learned about this tragic day in America’s history. One young person responded by answering “the importance of unity,” which was shown in abundance in the immediate days and weeks after the attacks.

The 9/11 Memorial Foundation of Chatham hosted a ceremony to honor the members of its community who died in the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks. Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney and local clergy participated in the event that began with a walking procession at the Chatham Train Station where commuters, including those on the fateful day in 2001, take the train to travel to their jobs in New York City.

On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Franciscans serving at St. Bonaventure Church in Paterson led a memorial service for Franciscan Father Mychal Judge, a FDNY chaplain and former pastor of St. Joseph Church in West Milford, at his grave in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery here. He was the first recorded casualty of 9/11.

Over the last few weeks, there have been many devastating images in Afghanistan as the government in the Middle Eastern country collapsed and was taken over by the Taliban leaving those in the country in a perilous situation. The situation hits close to home — thousands of Afghan refugees have landed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst near Trenton — leaving all they know behind. To assist in this humanitarian effort, Catholic Charities agencies in New Jersey are collaborating with the Joint Base to meet the basic needs of temporary housing, food, medical care, and resettlement assistance.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Eric Kut and his crew waited at the controls of their C-17 Globemaster cargo aircraft to take off from the airport in Kabul on a flight to safety and freedom for a planeload of passengers desperate to flee Afghanistan in the final days of the 20-year war that gripped the country. However, before takeoff, the crew radioed the control center with an astounding announcement: there were more than 800 people on board — far more than its usual capacity of up to 300 persons.

At some point in college, I believe as a freshman or sophomore, I remember being intrigued by hearing in a philosophy class that a particular philosopher (I do not recall his name) began his academic career as a “philologist.”

Amid the heated reaction from national leaders against the “heartbeat” law in Texas that bans abortions starting at six weeks, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said it is “tragic that political leaders, including President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), have responded with statements that ignore our nation’s sacred interest to protect the life and health of both mothers and their unborn children, instead responding with radical pledges to mobilize the full force of the federal government to block all efforts to protect the life of the child in the womb.”

In the 20 years since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, people of the Diocese still remember Franciscan Father Mychal Judge — the first listed causality of the attacks at the World Trade Center and now known as the “Saint of 9/11” — for using his considerable gifts as an “everyday saint.”