Priest who ministered on 9/11 recalls the day

...in this story (click above). Fr. Nobiletti, a native New Yorker, ministered to some of its victims as he witnessed the scenes of that day. He talks about answering a call for priests to respond to the scene.

"At the scene, the priests were sent in different directions. Father Nobiletti was stationed near an ambulance in front of the Millennium Hotel, where people from the north tower of the World Trade Center were being evacuated. "It was a horror," he said. "People were coming out burned, screaming and disoriented.

"I was a magnet. People were grabbing me and crying and asking me to help them contact their loved ones," Father Nobiletti said. As he knelt over the injured, he said, "there were chunks of stuff coming down all around us. I'm glad I didn't look up."

If he had, he might have seen the news photographers capturing both the chaos and his comforting presence in photos that were beamed around the world.

He did look up when he heard the roar made by the collapse of the south tower. "I ran and held onto the gate at the cemetery of St. Paul's chapel. I thought it was going to be the last thing I was ever going to see. Two people were holding onto my thighs to keep from getting swept away," he said. "I couldn't breathe. Everything was dark for eight to ten minutes."

Via Catholic News service