HOLMES BEACH – On Friday, Sept. 11, St. Bernard Catholic Church in Holmes Beach held a special mass in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The church’s American flag flew at half-staff and several smaller American flags were placed in front of the church building and the church entrance.
Inside the church, a cross that stood along one side of the altar was draped in red, white and blue cloth. Along the other side of the altar stood the white “Ground Zero Rescue Team” garment and safety helmet Rev. Gerard “Father G.” Critch wore while serving in New York City after the attacks.
The sermon Critch gave during the special mass addressed the terrorist attacks and the impacts still felt 25 years later.
Later that day, Critch spoke to The Sun about the mass and his time in New York City in 2001.
“We had a good turnout. That was our first try at it,” he said of the special mass.
He said some who attended the mass knew someone who perished during the 2001 attacks and rescue efforts.
“There were a lot of tears this morning,” he said.
Time at “Ground Zero”
Father Critch said he’d been in the Bradenton area for about a year when the 9/11 attacks occurred.
“I came here 26 years ago from New York. I was stationed in Bradenton. I got the call from the hospital and the doctors in New York that they needed a chaplain. The hospital, St. Vincent, was right next to ‘Ground Zero,’” he said.
“I was flown up on one of the first flights after the attacks. I was one of the chaplains at the ‘Foxhole,’ where they brought the bodies out – myself and a rabbi. We had to stay inside the perimeters of ‘Ground Zero,’ so we couldn’t leave. We slept at St. Paul’s Chapel, in the pews. We couldn’t sleep by ourselves. We had to sleep next to somebody with the rumblings and stuff happening, because we still had 3,000 degrees of heat from the fallen towers below us,” Critch said.
“At the beginning, I spent most of my time there with the rabbi, but it was a crime scene, so I did a lot of work in that area with body parts and the medical team there,” he said.
Critch said he performed last rites for many firefighters before they reentered the rubble, not knowing if they’d make it back out again.
He also handed out new boots to firefighters whose boots wore out from the heat and extreme conditions encountered. And he conducted many funerals in New York.
As part of the ongoing and long-term recovery efforts, Critch served on an executive board that raised money to assist orphaned children born after 9/11.
“We had to fight the insurance companies because they were not covered by insurance,” Critch said.
Those efforts included the publication of the “Heavenly Skies and Lullabies: Illustrated Songbook & CD” that raised money for the Twin Towers Orphan Fund that assisted babies and children impacted by the tragic events.
“This morning I was watching TV and they were interviewing one of those kids that were in their mom’s womb in 2001,” Critch said.
He noted he was among the more than 50,000 estimated first responders who were later diagnosed with cancer believed to be associated with the toxins they were exposed to during their time at “Ground Zero.”
“That’s related directly to 9/11, so we still need lots of prayers,” Critch said.
While standing on the altar Friday afternoon, Critch pointed to the brown stains on his “Ground Zero Rescue Team” garment and said, “If you look closely, you can see the stains from the tears. There were a lot of tears.”
Related coverage: Rev. Gerard Critch gives Sept. 11 sermon at St. Bernard Catholic Church
