CNS: Men central to Pennsylvania 9/11 events find strength in Catholic faith

Sept. 11, 2001, was a routine Tuesday morning at the Miller Funeral Home in Somerset [Pennsylvania]. Wallace "Wally" Miller, Somerset County coroner, was in his office and his father, Wilbur, who lived with him, was in his customary place on the couch, watching television.

"Come and look at this," he yelled to his son. "A pilot must have had a heart attack and crashed his plane into the World Trade Center. How would you like to be the coroner in New York?" he asked rhetorically.

Miller watched for a bit and retreated to his office. A little later, he received a call from Denny Kwiatkowski, Cambria County coroner, asking him about a plane crash near Shanksville.

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"As a coroner, I'm the last man to get to the scene of a death. When I got to Shanksville there were state policemen, firemen, FBI, ATF and emergency personnel already at the site," Miller recalls, "and they all looked to me to orchestrate the disaster recovery."

He says he felt totally unprepared to handle the situation, but with the help of a few friends, along with his Catholic faith, he was able to establish a morgue in Friedens and a family operations center at nearby Seven Springs Resort.

"I really believe my faith allowed me to deal with Flight 93," said Miller, a member of St. Peter Parish in Somerset who became a Catholic in 1996.

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