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<\/a><\/p>\nBut perhaps what is most remarkable about St. Peter\u2019s and St. Joseph\u2019s, and timely on this the eleventh anniversary of September 11, is the parish\u2019s witness during the weeks and months after the 2001 tragedies, captured in the dedication of the Catholic Memorial at Ground Zero<\/a> offered by their parish community:<\/p>\n \u201cOn September 11, a cloud of dust and ash from the imploding World Trade Center towers engulfed the Chapel.\u00a0 In the wake of the disaster, government relief agencies used the chapel as their command station.\u00a0 The pulpit and pews were moved ouside and destroyed in a rainstorm a few days later.\u00a0 A tent erected where the priests of St. Joseph’s celebrated Mass for rescue and recovery workers.\u00a0 For the next several months, the Chapel was used as a sanctuary for construction workers, police officers and firefighters who came to eat, talk with spiritual counselors from a range of religious tradit<\/em>ions and simply rest from the physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausting recovery efforts at Ground Zero\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n What can we make of this striking image of a Catholic parish turned staging ground for rescue and recovery efforts?\u00a0 Surely not every parish is given the opportunity to display such radical hospitality in its local community, to exhibit the kind of heroism of Fr. Mychal Judge<\/a>, an NYFD chaplain whose body was carried by firefighters to St. Peter\u2019s when he was mortally wounded in the North Tower.\u00a0 And few parishes will see their sanctuaries turned into what pastor Fr. Kevin Madigan described of St. Peter’s: “Stuff was piled six feet high all over the pews\u2014bandages, gas masks, boots, hoses and cans of food for the workers and the volunteers, many of whom were sleeping in the church on bedrolls.”<\/p>\n Nonetheless, in addition to the ongoing evangelization of its members through worship, formation and pastoral care, today\u2019s parish is called to a bold evangelization of its community, beginning with extensions of hospitality.\u00a0 As a pastoral statement<\/a> of the U.S. Bishops described: \u201cIn urban neighborhoods, in suburban communities, and in rural areas, parishes serve as anchors of hope and communities of caring, help families meet their own needs and reach out to others, and serve as centers of community life and networks of assistance.\u201d\u2028 We will probably never see our sanctuaries become centers of emergency rescue efforts.\u00a0 But how can they become staging grounds for responding to the Gospel calls and command centers for extending justice, peace and charity to our neighbors?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" St. Peter Catholic Church and its mission chapel, St. Joseph\u2019s, somehow survived when the World Trade\u00a0Center towers collapsed around them on September 11, 2001. That these humble structures should escape with minimal damage (landing gear from one of the aircraft … Continue reading