9/11 First recorded death a priest

His was the first recorded death at Ground Zero. Three thousand attended his funeral. I remember reading this in 2001 - long before I dreamed I would convert from evangelicalism to Catholicism. I am so grateful NPR revisited this story - because it is truly through stories that we find healing:

Slain Priest: 'Bury His Heart, But Not His Love'

Shannon Stapleton/Reuters /Landov
A
mortally injured Father Mychal Judge is carried out of the World Trade
Center by first responders, including Bill Cosgrove (in white shirt).
Cosgrove says, "everybody you see in that picture was saved" from the
North Tower's collapse, moments later.

September 9, 2011

Father Mychal Judge was a Franciscan friar and a
chaplain to the New York City Fire Department. He was also a true New
York character. Born in Brooklyn, Mychal Judge seemed to know everyone
in the city, from the homeless to the mayor.

On
the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Father Mychal arrived at the World Trade
Center shortly after the first plane hit. And as firefighters and other
rescue personnel ran into the North Tower, he went with them.

Bill
Cosgrove, a police lieutenant, was also there. When the South Tower
collapsed, it sent debris flying into the neighboring building. When
the dust cleared, Mychal Judge was dead. Soon after, Cosgrove found
him. Then, Cosgrove and a group of firefighters emerged from the
rubble, carrying Father Mychal's body.

Here's how Cosgrove, who's now retired, recalls that day:

I
went a couple of steps, and I hit something. And I told the fire chief
that somebody was on the floor. And he put the light on him -- and I
remember him saying, 'Oh my god, it's Father Mike.'

He
checked his vital signs, and he said, 'He's dead.' So, we all picked
him up. We went up the steps. And I remember looking up, because one of
the firemen was yelling at a photographer. He was telling him, in no
uncertain terms, 'Get out of the way.'

I
didn't even think about that picture being taken. I was just doing my
job. It's just... so many other heroic acts were being done all around
me. It's just that no one took a picture of it.

The
next day, when I came back into the precinct, somebody showed me the
picture. And I got a lot of calls from people that knew Mychal Judge --
firemen. They assumed I knew him, you know, but I didn't, until that
day.
He's always been on my mind ever since then, because it's my firm belief that the only reason I'm here today is because of him.

Read more at NPR.