This week will mark 25 years since the 9/11 attacks.
Many people are reflecting on what the tragedy means to them - and how it’s changed us as individuals and as a nation. That includes a local chaplain who rushed to the Flight 93 crash site and stayed there for days.
As chaplain for the Pittsburgh office of the FBI, Father Joseph McCaffrey– affectionately known as Father Mac - has been a steady hand of comfort at plenty of tragedies.
He was there after the crash of Flight 427, the EgyptAir disaster in 1999 and then 9/11.
“When I came out from mass, there were some people who were telling me that this plane crashed into one of the towers,” McCaffrey said.
Hours later, he would be on his way to the crash of Flight 93 in Somerset County.
“They said we’re going to need your help dealing with the families who will be coming in,” McCaffrey said. “When I went to the site, I went over and then I prayed over the site and I consecrated the ground, and I prayed for all who had died.”
Channel 11’s Susan Koeppen: “As a priest but also as a human being, what do you remember? What were your thoughts being at that site?
McCaffrey: Well, it struck me as so surreal. The whole event, of course, and it was like, what is unfolding here, and what am I really seeing? And I felt rather privileged to even be there.
Father Mac would spend the next 10 days at the crash site praying with grieving families.
Koeppen: And you were dealing with families of all faiths.
McCaffrey: Yes.
Koeppen: What did the families need from you or ask of you when you met with them?
McCaffrey: I think they appreciated mostly just listening. That they knew the person before them was a person of faith, and it didn’t matter what the faith was. But there was a connection with that that is eternal, and the hope of eternal life and peace for their loved ones who died in a very tragic way.
Father Mac was by their side when the families were brought to a spot above the crash site where someone had put up a wooden cross.
“What was so impressive in that moment was all the evidence recovery team was down in the site, and when the families arrived, and we gathered up there, they all turned; they saluted the families; they were all in hazmat suits. They saluted the families and then silently walked off the site so that families could just be there, and it was very moving,” McCaffrey said.
Months later, he was by their side again as families were allowed to listen to the cockpit recordings from Flight 93.
“We had the headsets on, and people were crushing their heads trying to hear the voice of their loved one, and you could just feel with them; they were longing to hear that voice,” McCaffrey said.
He says – you could hear a struggle. Passengers fighting back as heroes.
25 years later, Father Joseph McCaffrey is still with the FBI and still in touch with family members.
Koeppen: Looking back on 9/11 and your time spent there, what are your thoughts about the job that you did and the help you provided?
McCaffrey: I’m very grateful that I had the opportunity to be present. I had the privilege and the opportunity to do it, and for that I will always be grateful.
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