Vatican newspaper recalls 9/11
September 12, 2011
L’Osservatore Romano has published a column by Father Robert Imbelli, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York and Boston College theology professor, on the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
“Religious passion and persuasion can energize for good, but can also breed deadly fanaticism,” he writes. To be life-giving, religious commitment must be tempered by the discernment of reason.”
“We so often take for granted and fail to acknowledge the preciousness of the gift of life and love,” he added. Many young people, in the aftermath of September 11th, re-read Blessed John Paul II’s Encyclical The Gospel of Life, and it challenged them to appropriate more fully its vision of an integral humanism … ”
“September 11th revealed in a striking way human life’s utter precariousness. All our aspirations and achievements can be so quickly snuffed out … the most vivid remembrance of that terrible day remains, not the hatred of the terrorists, but the courageous sacrifice of the rescuers …”
“But Catholic hope transcends even this generous earthly solidarity. It is not limited merely to the present life. Our great hope encompasses as well the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”
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