‘Chaplain at Holy Cross Speaks of Love and Community at 9/11 Memorial Mass’

Rev. Michael Rogers, S.J.’02, chaplain at the College of the Holy Cross, officiated the 9/11 Memorial Mass. Speaking with Charter TV3’s Worcester News Tonight, he remembers how, as a senior during the attacks, he went to the St. Joseph Memorial Chapel on campus seeking comfort. Fr. Rogers was concerned for his father’s safety as he was in New York City at the time.

“Slowly but surely,” he told WNT, recalling that day, “this entire chapel which holds 900 people filled up…It filled up out the doors onto the plaza and the entire campus community gathered here, in this space.”

Fr. Rogers later learned that his father was safe, but the Holy Cross community did lose seven alumni in the attacks. In dedication to their memory, Memorial Plaza, located outside Smith Hall, honors Edward Brennan III ’86, Thomas D. Burke ’85, Neilie A. Heffernan Casey ’90, John G. Farrell ’91, Todd A. Isaac ’94, Beth A. Quigley ’97, and John J. Ryan ’78.

“When you see the way that communities gather around people who are experiencing loss in those moments you realize that love always wins in the end,” Fr. Rogers told the outlet, “and that the hatred of that day ultimately lost to the love of friends and family.”

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This “Holy Cross in the News item” is by Emma Collins ’16.