Dear Friends,
This September, print, broadcast and social media have featured stories about September 11 attacks. Twenty-five years later, we still share the names and stories of the lost. We hear the words of the bereaved and accompany them in this anniversary commemoration. Names of the dead are engraved in memorials, hearts, memory, and United States history.
A Brazilian bishop, Dom Pedro Casaldáliga, spoke powerfully about this obligation to hold dear the names and stories of others. Before his death in 2020, he wrote a poem that includes these lines:
At the end of the road
They will ask me
Have you lived?
Have you loved?
And I, without saying anything,
Will open my heart full of names.
Reflecting on those lines, I imagine the names of those who died on September 11. And as I pray, I realize my heart must welcome the names of all who are dying in military conflict. International disputes and violent actions offer to our attention names from battles in Ukraine and Russia, Gaza and Israel, Iran and Sudan. The dead are civilians, journalists, soldiers, travelers, relief workers, and children. Here are just a few of the first names published since 2021.
Swarna
Kevin Patrick
Vladimir
Joshua Ruben
Sadie
Cortez
Shoshana
Yugi
Jimmie
Melanie Lamar
Ghaidaa
Siraj
Cory
Suhelah
Kateryna
Eliyahu
Shiri
Carmel
Sonthaya
Tyler
Ashley
Ali
Lyuba
Aziz
Natasha
Oleg
Miriam
Leonid
Mykola
Amal
Fatima
Ivan
Roxana
Remembering these and all the war dead,
Susan Schantz SSJ
