September (Web-only) 2001

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At least 2,000 people, including New York's mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, and the secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, packed St Patrick's Cathedral in New York, for a mass to remember all those who were killed September 11. Hundreds more, unable to get into the cathedral, gathered outside listening to the service over loudspeakers.

"I am sure that we will seek justice in this tragedy as citizens of a nation under God in which hatred and desires for revenge must never have a part," Cardinal Edward Egan of New York said in his sermon.

Interposed with displays of sorrow in recent days were calls for retaliation, and talk of war was heavy in the air.

"War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder," President George W. Bush said on September 14 during the national day of prayer service at Washington National Cathedral. "This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger.

"This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way and at an hour of our choosing."

The Washington service was marked by a solemnity unmatched in recent U.S. history. Billy Graham, 83 years old and frail from Parkinson's Disease, said the destruction of the World Trade Center did not destroy what he called the nation's spiritual foundation.

"Yes, our nation has been attacked, buildings destroyed, lives lost," Graham said, speaking to an audience that included every living former U.S. president except the ailing Ronald Reagan. "But now we have a choice: whether to implode and disintegrate emotionally and spiritually as a people and ...