Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States, the words offered by Catholic leaders in the aftermath continue to carry a message of Christian hope: violence cannot conquer evil, revenge cannot heal suffering, and death does not have the final word.
According to Vatican News, Pope St. John Paul II was at Castel Gandolfo when he learned of the four suicide attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Deeply shaken by the news, he immediately went to the private chapel of the Apostolic Palace to pray.
In a telegram sent to U.S. President George W. Bush, John Paul II described the attacks as an “unspeakable horror” and an “inhuman” act during a “dark and tragic moment” in history.
The following day, the Pope addressed the tragedy during his General Audience in St. Peter’s Square. According to Vatican News, the usual applause was absent at his request as those gathered observed a solemn silence.
“Yesterday was a dark day in the history of humanity, a terrible affront to human dignity,” John Paul II said.
Faced with the cruelty the world had witnessed, the Pope pointed Christians toward Christ as the source of hope, insisting that evil and death would not have the final word.
A future pope was also confronting the tragedy from Rome.
Father Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, was attending the 180th Ordinary General Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine when the attacks occurred. He was elected Prior General on September 14, 2001, and later presided over the chapter’s closing Mass on September 21.
According to Vatican News, Father Prevost acknowledged the tragedy in his homily and warned against responding to violence with more hatred.
“While many seek revenge,” he said, “Augustinians must bear witness to the Gospel and to its values of unity, dialogue, peace, and reconciliation.”
John Paul II returned to the same message one year later. During his General Audience on September 11, 2002, he remembered the destruction of the Twin Towers and the innocent lives lost in the rubble.
He condemned terrorism as a “manifestation of inhuman ferocity” and rejected oppression, armed violence and war as answers to conflict.
“Reason and love,” the Pope said, “are the only valid means for overcoming and resolving disputes between individuals and peoples.”
Pope Benedict XVI carried that message directly to Ground Zero during his 2008 Apostolic Journey to the United States.
According to Vatican News, Benedict stood at the site where the Twin Towers had once risen, lit a candle for those who died and knelt in prayer. He asked God for peace in a violent world and for humanity to have the wisdom and courage necessary to build genuine peace and love among nations and within human hearts.
On the tenth anniversary of the attacks in 2011, Benedict again reflected on the tragedy in a letter to Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, then president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Pope stressed that terrorism could never be justified, particularly by invoking God. Every human life, he taught, is precious in God’s sight, and the dignity and rights of every person must be respected.
Pope Francis later stood at Ground Zero himself during his 2015 visit to the United States.
Speaking during an interreligious gathering at the memorial, Francis described the attacks as “a senseless act of destruction,” according to Vatican News.
But his message did not remain focused on destruction.
Francis pointed toward reconciliation, unity and the ultimate triumph of life over death. The logic of hatred, violence and revenge, he warned, produces suffering, destruction and tears.
“Let us implore from on high the gift of commitment to the cause of peace,” Francis said. “Peace throughout this world which God has given us as the home of all and a home for all. Simply peace.”
Six years later, on the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, Francis again called people of faith to actively choose peace rather than remain indifferent.
“Not neutral, but taking a stand for peace!” he told participants in the 2021 G20 Interfaith Forum in Bologna.
Across the years separating September 11, 2001, from its twenty-fifth anniversary, the circumstances and voices have changed, but the central Catholic response recorded by Vatican News has remained remarkably consistent.
John Paul II pointed toward Christ when confronted with seemingly overwhelming evil. Benedict XVI emphasized the sacred value of every human life and the courage required to build peace. Francis called for reconciliation instead of revenge. And decades before becoming Pope Leo XIV, Father Robert Prevost urged Christians to answer hatred by witnessing to the Gospel.
Twenty-five years after one of the darkest days in modern American history, their words offer a distinctly Christian response to the memory of September 11: remember those who died, reject hatred and violence, defend human dignity, work for peace, and trust that evil will never have the final word.
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