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Hi,

Hopefully I'll see you on Saturday evening, Sept 22nd, at 5:30 p.m. for Mass at Presentation.

I finally got back to the United States late on Saturday night and want to share these thoughts with you.

Give my love to all the family. God bless you always.

Love, Fr Mike irish@sonnet.com

My sermon at San Andreas; Sunday September 16th 2001: When I arrived in this parish just over year ago, I promised all of you that, with very few exceptions, my sermons would never be longer than 5 minutes. This is one of those exceptional times. I am going to need your prayers to get thru this. I spend 3 very tense days at Munich airport in Germany this past week desperately trying to get a plane back here to the United States, back here to St Andrew’s Parish, since I so deeply wanted to be with you on this weekend, of all weekends, as we gather before our God to worship together.

A few short weeks ago I visited Auswich/Birkenau, the worst of all the concentration camps, where about 1.5 million people were put to death in during WW2. The guide who took us around used one word over and over when describing what had happened there, a word I had, in fact, never heard used in conjunction with the Holocaust. The word was murder. Each child, each woman, each man who died there was murdered. Not killed, not exterminated; murdered. Murder is the cold blooded killing of an innocent person. And so we come to last Tuesday. Let us never used the phrase 5000 people were killed on Sept 11th. People are "killed" in car accidents or in storms or tornadoes. No, 5000 people were NOT killed on Tuesday. 5000 people were murdered on Tuesday. Each and every individual precious life that was lost was a cold-blooded murder.

I was in Ireland when this happened. CNN and news broadcasts are international now and we saw everything as it happened. I and my family experienced everything people here did: shock, anger, fear, frustration and, in the end, numbness and emptiness. How can any of us possibly explain or understand what happened. The terrible answer is we can’t. We are left, in the end, with asking ourselves what kinds of lessons can we take from this; what kind of good can come out of it. Some things are immediately obvious: the huge numbers of people lined up to help in any way they can, the amazing solidarity all over the world with America and Americans. In Ireland Friday was declared a national day of mourning; all government offices and businesses and schools were closed and special Masses were offered in every little village in the country. It was a scene repeated all over Europe and in much of the world. It shows that the depth of the horror and the loss was not confined to our shores.

America is a country rooted in a deep and abiding faith in God. And that faith carry us forward and upward from here. We pray for the innocent victims; we pray for their families. We pray for all the rescue workers and their families. We pray for our military, the custodians of our freedom. We pray for the President and his advisors and Congress, that wisdom may be theirs in these dangerous times. And finally, we pray for ourselves, for patience, endurance and a continuing deep abiding faith in God. And if we only learn one thing from this, let us remember what the people on the upper floors said in their last calls to their families, and esp those incredibly brave people on the plane that crashed in PA, who called to say to their families the simplest of things: “I love you, take care of the kids”. Let us not leave those kinds of things unsaid to our own loved ones. Let us not take it for granted “oh well, they know that”. Let us say it to them as is was the last thing we were ever going to say, as those people knew in those terrible moments. Those who were murdered on Tuesday will be honored if each and every one of us do just that.

I’d like to finish by reading a portion of two quotations for this past week’s newspapers. The first is from a columnist in Miami, called An Open letter to terrorists:

Well, you hit the world trade center, but you missed America. You hit the Pentagor, but your missed America. You used helpless American bodies to take out other American bodies, but like a poor marksman, you still missed America. Why? Because of something you guys will never understand. America isn’t about a building or two, not about financial centers, not about military centers. America isn’t about a place, America isn’t even about a bunch of bodies. America is about an IDEA. And idea that you are free to go someplace where you can earn as much as you can figure out how to, live free for the most part and pursue happiness. And that idea of freedom you an never ever, ever kill.

Last is from a lady writer, asked by her young son the most difficult question of all, the question “Why?”

The terrorists forgot something when they attacked us hoping to break our spirits, infuse us with paralyzing fear, and holding our security and lives up for mockery. They forgot this is America. We were founded upon such tragedies and heart break. We are formed of millions of people who left terrible lives behind and came here in search of freedom and a better life for their children, grandchildren, and all of our descendants. Our ancestors overcame starvation, grinding poverty, slavery, epidemics........... and we am still here. They may kill some of us, they may maim many of us, they may even momentarily scare us - but ultimately we are Americans and that name means guts, courage, hope, hard work, helping hands, and the strength to rebuild and go on. We are at our best when the worst happens to us. THAT is something people like the ones who caused this tragedy will never understand. NOTHING pulls America together as one as much as an attack on fellow Americans. So instead of being cowed and frightened and demoralized as the terrorists hoped we would be, they caused us to stand as one and say, "We are America, and by God we will go on!!" You see it in the faces of the people across America waiting up to 8 hours to give needed blood, the people working at ground zero in NYC who have worked many hours in horrific conditions and are ready to keep going, the people who lived nearby who rushed into the streets to help or who made sandwiches and coffee and went outside to pass it out to the workers, the taxi drivers who tore the back seats out of the cabs to help transport victims to the hospital, the people who filled churches, synagogues, and mosques to pray for the victims, rescuers, and our entire country. Patriotism is all around us. It is in us. And that is what the terrorists forgot. They may kill Americans, but they will never destroy America because America lives within us all.

POMBO REPORT 9/14/01 Terrorism: Special Report

Official Statement by Congressman Pombo

At 9:43 A.M. on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I was atop the United States Capitol giving a tour of the Capitol Dome when I saw a burst of fire, then a mushroom cloud and smoke billowing out of the Pentagon.

At first, I thought the explosion occurred in nearby housing developments. It could not be the Pentagon. But no, it was much too close. The Pentagon was on fire.

I left my office exactly one minute before the second airliner crashed into the World Trade Center, and I did not know at first that the United States had been the victim of terrorist attacks. Quickly, though, I could see that something was terribly wrong and was ushered out of the Capitol to safety.

Like everyone else, I was shocked and saddened at the events of that day. These were senseless and cowardly attacks on our freedom and our liberty. These acts will not go unpunished.

We, as Americans, have a tremendous ability to join together and unite in times of need. We have seen this in the record number of citizens throughout the nation rushing to blood banks to donate blood. My district office in Stockton, California, has been flooded with calls from people wanting to help.

In 1994, when we were faced with the potential of sending United States forces into Bosnia, and again in 1998 facing a potential conflict with Iraq, I presented five parameters to guide decisions to commit our armed forces to overseas conflict. We must:

1. Protect territories belonging to the United States. 2. Preserve our political and economic system from foreign threats. 3. Keep sea lanes open for trade, and maintain free and voluntary trade between the United States and trading partners. 4. Prevent domination of strategic areas of the globe by powers hostile to the existence and interests of the United States.

5. Safeguard Americans and their property from acts of terrorism.

These acts have hurt each and every one of us, but our resolve is unshaken and our courage as a people is solid. And so, our duty as a nation is to unite behind President George W. Bush to take whatever steps necessary to apprehend these cowardly thugs and bring a swift and just punishment.

To the families, who have either received the news of the death of a loved one, or are holding out hope that their loved one will be recovered safely, my prayers, and the prayers of all Americans are with you. I knew one of the victims, and understand the pain.

I stand firmly behind our President in this hour of crisis. The United States of America will continue to shine as a beacon of hope and freedom to nations throughout the world. There is nothing any terrorist can ever do to change our Republic.

May God bless America.

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