Scottish Catholic Observer

Parishioners in Howth, Co Dublin—taken in by what proved to be an online hoax this weekend about memorial services for al Qaeda leader Bin Laden in their parish—are said to have been split between those thinking it was a genuine Christian act of forgiveness and others offended by at the insensitivity of the move. And that made me think.

Having worked in the Middle Eastern country from where the 9/11 terrorists originated—and living in Boston in the US at the time of the terror attacks—like many over the past week I have been reliving the pain of what happened at the World Trade Center in New York, the plot against the Pentagon and the suspected plot against the White House itself. That is what happens when you rip a scab off of a wound that is covered over but as yet unhealed, you relive the emotion.

I attended the funeral of one victim of the September 11 2001 attacks. Jim Hayden was a Massachusetts-based executive at the internet security company my friend worked for. Jim had taken his CEO’s seat on the Boston flight to California when the other man ran late that morning. The plane was the second one to hit the Twin Towers (above).

Jim’s widow Elizabeth Gail, daughter Elizabeth and son John asked their parish priest to celebrate a Catholic funeral Mass for him at St Catherine Church in Westford on September 17 2001, even though his body was never recovered and the coffin they brought to the chapel was empty. Being at that funeral—in all its dignity and respect, hearing prayers of hope and forgiveness—is something that will remain with me for the rest of my days.

“Osama bin Laden—as we all know—was gravely responsible,” Vatican spokesman Fr Lombardi said last week after his death before adding: “Faced with the death of a man, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibility of each and every one of us before God and before man.”

Yet the vain hope that the death of the man suspected of planning the 9/11 terror attacks in the US would bring ‘closure’ ahead of the 10th anniversary of the tragedy is at best naive. Reflecting on the cause of violence in our world, not rejoicing in death, is what is indeed needed now.

After contacting my former co-workers in the Middle East and the US, many spoke of pain, confusion and renewed fears over terrorism, not relief, following Bin Laden’s death.

“America has again taken on the thankless task of being the world’s policeman—using a ‘big stick’ without international backing—but it is not the stick that worries us most, it is the splinters,” one former colleague said.

There are lessons to be learned, from then and now, to honour the memories of those who were lost in this terror attack on American soil, and to improve dialogue between political and faith communities in the future.

— Liz Leydon is editor of the Scottish Catholic Observer, Scotland’s only national Catholic newspaper. E-mail [email protected]