by Tablet Staff

Three chaplains who saw the Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath up close are recalling that day, the recovery that followed, and the work there that never stopped.

Msgrs. Robert Romano, David Cassato, and Jamie Gigantiello — chaplains with the New York Police Department and the Fire Department of New York — were at Ground Zero following the attack on the World Trade Center.

Msgr. Romano went to Ground Zero as soon as he heard that planes had struck the twin towers. What stayed with him from that day remains the starting point of the story he still tells.

Msgr. Cassato had been appointed an NYPD chaplain only three months before the attacks. From the beginning, the events of Sept. 11 have defined his role. They still do. First responders continue to get sick and die from 9/11-related illnesses, and ministering to them remains part of the job. The attacks, he has said in that work, changed him.

Msgr. Gigantiello, an FDNY chaplain, continues to preside over many funerals. Faith, he was asked to describe, is what has carried people through the losses that began that morning and have not ended.