Catholic News Service: The Vatican and 9/11: Commitment to dialogue, cooperation set the tone

CNS reports on the Vatican's response to the 9-11 terrorist attacks:

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States horrified the pope and Vatican officials, who unequivocally condemned terrorism and offered prayers for the dead, the survivors and the rescue workers.

The attacks shook the world but did not destroy the commitment to dialogue and cooperation of Catholic and Muslim leaders in interreligious relations.

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After the attacks, Pope John Paul II immediately sent a telegram to President George W. Bush, and the pope spoke about the tragedy at his general audience the next day, saying: "Yesterday was a dark day in the history of humanity, a terrible affront to human dignity."

"Even if the forces of darkness appear to prevail," he said at the audience, "those who believe in God know that evil and death do not have the final say. Christian hope is based on this truth; at this time our prayerful trust draws strength from it."

[. . .]

Two months after the attacks, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was interviewed by Vatican Radio and asked what his first reflections about 9/11 would have been. He said he might have pointed out that "religion here is being abused for other ends; it has been politicized and made a factor of power."

"On the other hand, perhaps I would have spoken more about the need to know God's human face. If we see Christ's face, our Lord who suffers for us and showed how much he loved us in dying for us, we have a vision of God that excludes all forms of violence," the cardinal answered.

As pope, he visited ground zero in New York in 2008 and recited a special prayer he wrote to mark the occasion.

He prayed, "God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world: peace in the hearts of all men and women and peace among the nations of the earth. Turn to your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred."