The Blue Mass on 9/11

This is a good article about the Blue Mass which was celebrated at my parish on Saturday, 9/11. The priest gave a great homily about 9/11 which was straightforward, patriotic and of course very Catholic. The article points out that it is becoming common to celebrate the Blue Mass on 9/11 for obvious aptness.

Here's an excerpt from the article.

A Blue Mass is traditionally held to honor law enforcement officers, particularly those who have died in the line of duty or otherwise demonstrated a heroic commitment to their work for the community. Fr. Thomas Dade, a Washington, D.C. priest who founded the Catholic Police and Firemen's Society, began the tradition in 1934 of celebrating an annual Mass for emergency workers, who always attend in uniform.

Fr. Dade's tradition has since spread throughout the nation. Because hundreds of police and rescue workers were killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, the date is becoming an increasingly common one on which to celebrate the Blue Mass.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester in New York will hold a Mass to “pray in a special way for all firefighters and first responders, and for all those who lost their lives at the World Trade Center tragedy nine years ago,” on September 11, 2010 at 4 p.m., with Bishop Matthew Clark as the celebrant.

In other news, an ultra-traditional Catholic friend-of-a-friend who somehow got my email address sent me a 1500-word email (I counted the words using MS-Word statistics, so I'm not exaggerating) about how the 9/11 attacks were the actions of an "out of control criminal government" and the official narrative about Islamic terrorism was merely a fable "spun by the cabal of American CORPORATE Media." I almost sent him this link, but decide to use my time better. My encounters with Trutherism have let me conclude that the best Gospel reference under which to file it is Mark 9:29, "This kind can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting."