CATHOLIC Church leaders in Australia and around the world have expressed concern that increasing acts of global terrorism are destroying modern society and provoking widespread fear.
In Sydney on September 14, about 250 people gathered in St Mary’s Cathedral for a lunchtime Mass, led by Cardinal George Pell, in remembrance of the victims of terror attacks.
In talking about the reasons behind the Mass for the victims of terrorism, Cardinal Pell said: ‘The threat of terrorism seems to have become part of our daily lives in the 21st century’.
Memorial services in churches across the United States on September 11-12, marked the third anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
New York Cardinal Edward M. Egan concelebrated a Mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York in remembrance of firefighters who died while attempting to rescue people in the rubble of the World Trade Centre, brought down when terrorists crashed two planes into the centre’s twin towers.
The same day, Washington Auxiliary Bishop Kevin J. Farrell told the congregation at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington that the Gospel invites people to create “a new culture of peace”.
Earlier, in a message to an interreligious meeting for peace in Milan, Italy, Pope John Paul II recalled the events of September 11, 2001 which he said ‘brought death to the heart of the United States”.
Speaking at the same interreligious meeting, Italian Cardinal Renato Martino said terrorism appears to have unleashed the “fourth world war”.
