April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
Experience at Ground Zero made strong impressions on priest
"The magnitude of the disaster was overwhelming, [as was] the constant, acrid smell of burning rubble," he said. "We realized we were at a tomb."
The pastor of Our Lady of Grace parish in Ballston Lake spent two weeks in September and October in New York City with his National Guard unit, the headquarters company of the 42nd Infantry division, based in Troy.
The unit was headquartered at the Park Ave. Armory on New York's East Side, reputed to have the city's highest concentration of millionaires. Father Diacetis said he was continually struck by the irony of seeing the nannies and dog-walkers of the rich as he left each morning to travel to Ground Zero.
"When the wind was in the right direction, you could smell the burning rubble all the way down there," he said.
The priest stayed with another chaplain at St. Vincent Ferrer Church on Lexington, and noted that he was lucky to get a private room with a bath instead of bunking with the soldiers at the armory.
"The pastor said, `Come on over; we've been looking for some way to help and maybe this is the answer,'" he recalled. In return, Father Diacetis offered to help with funeral Masses for victims, but the pastor told him simply, "Tony, there aren't going to be any funeral Masses." Victims were not being found, only uniforms or pieces of clothing.
Day's duties
Father Diacetis' mission was primarily to the joint task force of Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine and National Guard members checking identification at all the major intersections for those trying to enter the World Trade Center area."I started very early in the morning to visit all the venues where the soldiers were," he explained. "That brought me into contact with civilians and victims' families."
Every day, the priest would start out at Pier 94, the family service center for relatives of victims. He was struck by the massive wall of pictures of the missing victims, which was surrounded by flowers and by thousands of teddy bears sent by the children of Oklahoma City, where another terrorist had struck a few years earlier.
Father Diacetis also noticed a huge number of language translators.
"I can't tell you how many different languages there were interpreters for, even different dialects of Chinese," he said. It made him realize not just how many people were killed in the tragedy, but the massive number of ethnic backgrounds they represented.
Sights
From there, Father Diacetis would go to Pier 92, another area used for checking credentials, and then on to P.S. 89, a high school on the border of the World Trade Center that had been taken over by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).Then he would skirt the Trade Center area to get to Broadway, where he saw street cleaners working furiously to gather up the debris.
"The street cleaners were doing a really good job, but you could still see mounds of debris and paper stuck in the fences," he said.
Mass for rescuers
The priest also stopped at Battery Park, the main control center for the National Guard, before taking the Staten Island Ferry to Governor's Island, where many soldiers were housed. There, he celebrated Mass."Mass was usually rushed," he said. "It was usually between shifts, so we had half an hour. But there were people who came and prayed, and they prayed well."
Father Diacetis remarked on how well he saw his fellow Guardsmen handling the stress of the situation. "They did see the importance of their presence there," he noted. "They put in long hours, 12-hour shifts. Most found some acceptance through their job; they get into that `Army mission mode.'"
Meeting survivors
Back at Ground Zero, the priest would walk the area's perimeter, encouraging soldiers and rescue workers."Inevitably, a policeman or firefighter would call me over and I'd get to talk to a family member who had to come down to where a family member had been lost," he said. "We'd cry and we'd pray. I was able to minister to some of the victims' families."
Before he left for the mission, Father Diacetis had told The Evangelist he was nervous about going to Ground Zero (see Sept. 27 issue). Having now been there, he said, "I gained a great deal of confidence just doing it. I came to realize my presence there was of service and benefit to the soldiers, rescue workers and families. They were just generally pleased to see someone of religion. It didn't matter if it was Christian, Jewish or Muslim -- and they were all there."
In fact, the priest said his fellow chaplains were his greatest support. At the end of every day, he said, they would return to the armory to talk and pray together.
Ministering
He also noted that his job was less difficult than that of some people who'd been in the city right after the disaster, when families were still hoping their relatives would be found alive. By the time Father Diacetis arrived, he said, most people he met had struggled through their denial and accepted that their loved ones had died.Plenty of clergy were still on hand, however; Father Diacetis said that at one point, there were so many Coast Guard, Army, Navy, National Guard and civilian chaplains at the family service center that "we were crawling all over each other."
In addition to the work of his fellow chaplains and that of the soldiers, police, firefighters and other rescue workers, the priest was impressed with the "tremendous work" of the Red Cross, which "was everywhere."
Place to rest
He also noted that on Broadway, St. Paul's Episcopal Church and Trinity Church had set up a food center on the portico of St. Paul's. Drained rescue workers could go there to get something to eat, hot coffee and even a foot massage, or just to sit in the church and get some sleep."I was overwhelmed with the exhausted police and firemen who were stretched out in the pews," he said. "And in the sanctuary, there was a violinist just playing his violin. It was his way of helping in this monumental tragedy."
When Father Diacetis returned, he had the odd experience of "putting on my other uniform" for a birthday/memorial celebration at the tomb of President Chester A. Arthur in Albany. Then he packed his bags for a previously scheduled vacation in Aruba. By the time he came home, he was relaxed and had enough distance from his New York experience to settle back into parish life.
Lasting effects
The priest doesn't know whether his unit will be called up again, but he doubts it. He said that only a small group of Guardsmen have currently been called up to provide security at airports and bus stations.Still, he was glad to have had the opportunity to serve at Ground Zero, saying it had caused an "attitudinal change.
"I find myself being more patient, smiling and saying hello to total strangers," he explained. "That's the way it was in New York City, but I've carried it over. I've become much more aware of the fragility of human life and the need to respect it."
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