"In the Face of Adversity":
The Response of the Vincentian and Charity Families to 9/11

(Continued from page 1) Sister Carol Barnes, SC - NY of Seton Center on Washington Square spontaneously headed for nearby Saint Vincent's Hospital hoping to help. She met the C.E.O.'s administrative assistant whose husband, a firefighter among the first at the disaster site, was missing. Sister Carol waited with her at the firehouse until his death was confirmed. "It still feels like Ground Zero in my heart," Sister Carol said months later.

Members of the Vincentian family of Charity attended and prepared countless memorial services, funerals for friends, parishioners, current and former students, co-workers, and their relatives. Saint John's University was particularly affected. Seventy-two alumnae/i and 36 family members of students and staff died. Four Vincentians from Saint John's, Ken Slattery, Steve Denig, Bernie Tracey and Tom Casella traveled to the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan to counsel people connected with Canton Fitzgerald, the firm that lost 700 of its 1000 employees located on the top of Tower One. Two days after the bombing, Fathers Art Kolinsky and John Carney, C.M. went to Manhattan to offer their services. They spent two days there, serving especially the Spanish speaking. The next week Art Kolinsky received credentials from the city and from FEMA to work in the Ground Zero area. Art blessed the remains of the deceased. He also ministered to the rescue workers who spoke of horrible moments digging in the wreckage. Saint John's offered its new Manhattan campus site to city officials for use as a round-the-clock respite center for recovery crews. Two hundred Red Cross workers staffed the center for 69 days, serving more than a half million hot meals. Rev. Art Kolinsky wrote, "some of the rescue workers invited me to lunch with them. They said there was a building where they were serving food to the workers. …we entered the building. There was the image of Saint Vincent de Paul with his arms outstretched as if to embrace all those who entered the building. …How appropriate that these good and generous people from all over the country were being fed under the image of Saint Vincent."

Sisters Maureen Skelly and Grazyna Michniewicz, SC - Hal. worked as grief counselors at the Fish Kills landfill. Sister Maureen commented on the landfill as "a very sacred space." "It was Calvary again - the crucified were dust and ashes, the crucified were the relatives of all, the Crucified Jesus again, in all of us once again, on a hill overlooking the City - not Jerusalem but New York." For her compassionate, professional service Sister Maureen received several awards, including recognition as New York Police Chaplain of the Year.

Daughters of Charity Ann Shea and Joanne Dress were asked by New York Catholic Charities to coordinate the efforts of its fifteen offices to respond effectively to the needs of families affected by 9/11. Together they were responsible to see that relief funds were fairly and accurately dispersed to thousands of families, and for coordinating services such as housing and resettlement, emotional and psychological counseling and support and funeral expenses. For the significant role she played in the relief effort, Saint John's University honored Sister Ann with its Caritas Medal, given for outstanding service to the poor and suffering.

Among others who worked in the New York/New Jersey area was Sister Barbara Garland, SC - NJ parish coordination at Saint Patrick's in Chatham, NJ which lost five parishioners. Sisters Rosemary Moynihan and Patricia Mennor, SC - NJ gave several briefings on crisis counseling to mental health professionals in the Morristown, NJ area at the request of a local mental health center. In Manhattan, Sisters Jean Flannelly and Vivienne Joyce, SC - NY counseled family victims and gave educational sessions to clergy of different faiths on responses to tragedy. Sister Mary George Barlow, DC of the North Queens Catholic Community Center reported receiving about 100 calls a day and distributed about two million dollars in the first weeks after 9/11.

Many others of the Vincentian Family were also active in the effort. (Read Part II)

Edited by Sister Eleanor Casey, D.C.
Emmitsburg Province