by Msgr. James Reinert, 1957-2020
This account of the events of Sept. 11 in New York City was written Sept. 15, 2001 by Msgr. James Reinert. Msgr. Reinert died in January, after battling cancer. He was 62 and had been serving St. Joseph Parish in York as pastor since 2010. In 2001, Msgr. Reinert worked at the United Nations in New York as a delegate to the Holy See’s permanent observer mission at the U. N. The United Nations is located three and a half miles northeast east of the World Trade Center. Msgr. Reinert lived at St. St. Agnes Church, across the street from Grand Central Station. This item ran in the Sept. 21, 2001 issue of the Southern Nebraska Register.
Actually this morning (Saturday) is the first time I’ve been able to access the internet and we are still unable to make long distance calls from the office here in mid-town.
The city remains on ‘lockdown.’ There are police on every corner of major streets.
I returned to the UN on Monday for a full round of meetings. I was there until the early morning hours on Monday night/Tuesday, just hours before the attack on the World Trade Center (WTC). As I walked to the office on Tuesday morning, I heard a lowflying plane and looked up in time to see a wing go past. It seemed like it was following Madison Avenue, and I thought to myself, ‘Gee he’s low,’ but never imagining. In fact, even after the attack and the second plane struck (which we watched on TV) it did not dawn on me that I had seen the first plane maybe a minute before it hit.
Paul, the permanent deacon who helps out at St. Agnes, and who works for American Express Financial Services told me that some of his co-workers in the downtown office (in the south tower) felt the first impact and, having experienced the bombing eight years ago, started for the elevators right away. He said they crammed 50 people into an elevator and got to the lobby just as the second plane hit – they were essentially the last ‘elevator load’ out of either building.
Now we have F-15s prowling the skies. It is really comforting to have them there, believe it or not. At first, already by Tuesday noon they were there and people panicked when they heard them overhead. But now we’re used to them and it is a welcome sound.
The USS George Washington is just outside the harbor. And the John F. Kennedy is off on station, somewhere between here and Baltimore, along with the other ships of the two task forces – missle frigates and cruisers. I assume that they are using their air defense systems as an umbrella.
We still hear the wail of sirens. I guess they are just moving things around, getting equipment here and there. I walked down to the rescue staging area at Chelsea Piers on Thursday evening. This is the place that the rescue units from up and down the east coast have been gathered. Unfortunately they have not had much to do after Tuesday night. They did not bring out a survivor yesterday, only casualties. I think that the rescue units and their crews will begin to disperse today and tomorrow. I thank them for their presence.
It was the same at St. Vincent’s hospital Friday morning when l walked past on my way into Greenwich Village to celebrate Mass for the Missionaries of Charity. There were many ambulances parked there, about a mile north of “Ground Zero,” waiting to rush down Seventh Avenue to bring survivors back to the hospital.
Last evening, I walked, figuring that someone would stop me at Canal Street. Along the way I talked to the policemen and women who were directing traffic. I am no physician but I would say that many of them are working on adrenaline. The look of exhaustion is too evident.
Much to my surprise, I was able to cross Canal Street (Chinatown) and then Park Place and the offices of the courts and City Hall, and found myself just a couple of blocks east of the WTC. There were a number of staging areas for rescue, so I just walked and talk, heard a couple of people’s confessions and then walked home. Again, a lot of (too many) people with a glazed look in their eyes.
Now the recovery of victims begins… and they will begin to find parts and pieces. I think that a lot of people who may have already been numbed will be horrified when they begin to open what used to be staircases filled with hundreds of people that have just now been smashed into a ‘mass of human remains.’ For this we can never be prepared – things no human being is ever supposed to see.
I am well. Life seems so insignificant these days. It is good to be alive and now we must begin to deal with those who lost their lives, and those they left behind.
I celebrate an early morning Mass every morning at St. Agnes where I live. It is just across the street from Grand Central Station. The greatest majority of people who come to Mass are coming off the train and then catch the subways downtown. I have come to know the faces of these people. I wonder how many of the faces I will no longer see?
Please, if anyone asks, let them know that I’m okay. I’m getting phone and email messages from all over the place… and the phone and internet services have been limited… I don’t know when and how I might get back to everyone. May God bless us all.
