From blessing victims’ bodies at Ground Zero, to supporting gravely ill COVID-19 patients and their families, Bishop John Bonnici has conducted his ministry in the New York Archdiocese amid arguably the two largest disasters of early 21st-century U.S. history.
But even in the face of the horrors he encountered, Bishop Bonnici never lost sight of his Catholic faith — and neither did the archdiocese’s faithful, he said. For example, he recalled that in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attacks, churches were filled to capacity for Masses and special prayer.
“Amidst the tragedy, the sadness and the grief, there was this real genuine kindness and fraternal love in the city of New York of all places,” Bishop Bonnici remarked to the Catholic Courier during a Feb. 20 Zoom interview from his now-former parish, the Catholic Community of Larchmont. “The Lord was able to use people to reach out to others and allow for the healing that was so necessary.”
A similar resiliency emerged during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. Bishop Bonnici described ways parishes adjusted their spiritual offerings to accommodate lockdown restrictions: putting a monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament on the bed of a slowly driven pickup truck so people could safely pray; conducting outdoor Stations of the Cross; and constructing makeshift altars so people could attend Mass outdoors.
“Those were unexpected, unprecedented challenges to ministry,” he said of the pandemic. “But, you know, God works in great ways, and in the midst of all that, there was great creativity.”
Experience of witnessing fallout from Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was ‘incredibly surreal’ for Rochester’s new bishop
It’s been nearly a quarter-century since the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 — “a very somber anniversary for us all,” Bishop Bonnici said — when he arrived early at archdiocesan headquarters on First Avenue in Manhattan, where he worked as the archdiocese’s director of Family Life/Respect Life.
Minutes later, seven miles to his south in Lower Manhattan, hijackers steered American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center’s North Tower and United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower. The Twin Towers collapsed later that morning, as did WTC Building 7 in the late afternoon. According to the Pew Research Center, nearly 3,000 people died at Ground Zero and related attacks in Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa.
“There were rumors and fears that the United Nations was one of the targets, and we were only blocks from that building. So people were legitimately scared,” Bishop Bonnici said. “It was a very frightening day where there was so much uncertainty.”
Bishop Bonnici’s walk home that day — following the end of an office lockdown — brought him two miles closer to Ground Zero. Along the way, he encountered droves of people walking in the opposite direction, “basically escaping the total calamity around them. And they were all covered in dust. … It was an incredibly surreal experience.”
When he arrived at his residence at Manhattan’s Church of the Epiphany, “my whole room was covered in dust” blown in through windows he’d left cracked open that morning.
One day later, Bishop Bonnici was called to unprecedented acts of ministry. He and another priest went to Ground Zero where they supported emergency personnel “who were doing the horrific task of looking for the deceased and the victims of the attacks,” he said.
“And then we would bless the bodies and say the prayers as they were brought to the morgue.”
Bishop John Bonnici recalls how the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of New York worked through major crises
In March 2020, another major catastrophe rocked the New York Archdiocese. Bishop Bonnici was then serving as pastor of St. Columba Parish in Chester, about an hour from New Rochelle — the early epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 caused 35,736 deaths statewide in 2020 — the highest total among the 50 U.S. states — with New York City accounting for more than half of the fatalities.
“I don’t think any of us anticipated how quickly and how horrific it would become in such a short time,” Bishop Bonnici said.
Due to social-distancing requirements, he was forced to resort to offering comfort by telephone to parishioners as they lay dying in hospitals. “It destroyed me knowing that I couldn’t hold their hand or literally place the (sacred) oil on their forehead,” he said.
As was the case after 9/11, Bishop Bonnici conducted many more funerals than usual due to the COVID surge. He noted that early on in the pandemic, no more than a single loved one was allowed to attend a funeral Mass, and “a wake was unheard of.”
Yet Bishop Bonnici also emphasized the good that emerged from such tragic circumstances. He cited the outdoor Masses for which people would pull up in their vehicles “almost like (at) a drive-through or a drive-in movie theater,” allowing the faithful to receive “the grace of those sacraments they needed so desperately during that difficult time.” He added that at St. Columba Parish, he was part of a group that lit the church in blue to honor “a lot of very heroic and dedicated people” in the medical profession who put themselves in harm’s way to care for COVID victims.
“The (Catholic) church prevailed, and it continued to be a place of comfort, consolation and peace for people,” Bishop Bonnici remarked.
Tags: Bishop Installation, Bishop John S. Bonnici, COVID-19 Pandemic
