Dear Editor: Why Good Friday is Good! While I was a chaplain at Ground Zero at the World Trade Center, I was permitted to hold an on-site version of the Stations of the Cross by the iconic Ground Zero Cross. Many construction workers, members of the uniformed services and volunteers participated in this solemn service on hallowed ground. The date was Good Friday, March 29, 2002, at 3 p.m.

The next time Good Friday was to be March 29 was in 2013. On that Good Friday at exactly 3 p.m., Federal Judge Deborah Batts of the U.S. Southern District Court issued her decision to keep the Ground Zero Cross in the September 11th National Memorial Museum.

The lawsuit by the American Atheists Association was not only thwarted that day, but also the same group of atheists lost the appeal in federal court the next year in 2014. I was personally sued by this group for simply blessing the Cross into the Museum. My other colleagues and I won twice in federal court.

This was more of a coincidence that Good Friday was March 29 in both 2002 and 2013. This frivolous lawsuit began in July, 2011 and I believe it was divine inspiration that this federal judge rendered her just decision on Good Friday, March 29, 2013 at exactly 3 p.m.!
The Ground Zero Cross provided consolation to many recovery workers and family members of 9/11 victims. It still does today in the September 11th National Memorial Museum.

The sign of the Cross will always prevail!

FATHER BRIAN JORDAN, O.F.M.
Brooklyn Heights

Editor’s Note: Father Jordan is a chaplain at St. Francis College, Brooklyn Heights.