Return to Transcripts main page
Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield
Pope at Ground Zero. Aired 12-12:30p ET
Aired September 25, 2015 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kindly be seated.
POPE FRANCIS: Dear friends, excuse myself for not speaking in English. I cannot.
(through translator): I have many different feelings. I am moved by being here at Ground Zero where thousands of lives were taken in a senseless act of violence and destruction. You can feel the pain here. It's palpable. The water that we see running towards that empty center reminds us of all these lives who left under the power of those who believed that destruction is the only way to solve conflicts.
[12:05:33] That silent cry of those who suffered in their own skin the logic of violence, of hate, of revenge. The logic that could only cause pain and suffering, destruction and tears. Water falling also symbolizes our tears. The tears shed for destructions of yesterday who are joined by so much destructions today.
This is a place where we cry. We cry the pain that indeed powerlessness makes us feel when we see injustice (INAUDIBLE) aside the inability to solve our differences through dialogue. This place - in this place we cry for the unjust death of the innocent because we were not able to find solutions for the common good. It is water that reminds us of yesterday's tears and today's tears.
A few minutes ago I met some families of the first respondents that fell while performing their service. And in this meeting once again was able to see how destruction is never impersonal, it's never abstract, it's not about things. Above all, destruction has a face and has a history. It is specific. It has a - it has names. The family members show us the face of pain, pain that leaves us speechless but that screams to heaven.
But at the same time they were able to show me the other face of this attack, the other side of their pain, the power of love and remembrance. The memory that does not leave us empty on behalf of so many loved ones. These names are written here in the faces of these towers so we can see them and we can touch them and where we can never forget them.
Among this pain, we can also feel the capacity of heroic goodness that the human being is also capable of, the hidden force that we must always appeal to at times of greatest pain and suffering. You were witness of the greatest acts of giving of themselves, of yourselves and help, a stretched out hand, lives given, to this metropolis that may seem impersonal, anonymous, of loneliness, and people were able to show the powerful solidarity of neutral help, of love, of self- sacrifice.
[12:10:01] At that time it wasn't about blood or origin or neighborhood or religion or political views. It was a matter of solidarity. It was an emergency brotherhood. It was a matter of humanity.
New York fire men and women came in to the towers that were crumbling without much thinking about their own lives. Many fell in their duty and with their sacrifice, they allowed for so many others to survive. This place of death also is transformed into a place for life, saved lives. A song that leads us to affirm that life will always triumph over the prophets of destruction over death and good will always win over bad. Reconciliation and unity will prevail over hate and division.
In this place of pain and remembrance, I am full of hope because of the opportunity of joining the leaders representing so many of religious traditions (ph) that enrich the life of this great city. I hope our presence here sends a powerful sign of our wish to share and reaffirm the wish to be the forces of reconciliation, forces of peace, of justice in this community and throughout the whole world.
In our (ph) differences and discrepancies, it is possible to live in the world of peace. The face of any attempt to make us all similar, it is possible, and it is necessary to meet together with our different tongues, different cultures, religions and raise our voice against anyone who would like to the prevent that, because together today we have been invited to say "no" to any attempt to make us all the same and to say "yes" to our differences accepting an inreconsiation (ph).
For this we need to throw away these feelings of hate and revenge and rancor. We know - and we know this is only possible through a gift of heaven here in this place of remembrance. Each one of us, in their way, but together. I propose a moment of silence and prayer. Let us ask of the Lord the gift of joining the case of peace. Peace in our homes, in our families, in our schools, in our communities. Peace in all the places in which war seems to be endless. Peace in the faces of the people who have only seen pain. Peace in this wide world that God has given us as our home, as a home for us all and for us all. Only peace.
Let us pray in silence.
[12:15:36] During this way, the life of those we love will not be a life that will be forgotten. That it will be present each time we try to be the prophets of construction and reconciliation, the prophets of peace.
CHOIR (singing): Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me. Let there be peace on earth, the peace that was meant to be. With God our creator, family all are we. Let us walk with each other, in perfect harmony. Let peace begin with me, let this be the moment now. With every step I
take, let this be my solemn vow. To take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally. Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.
Peace on earth. Peace on earth. Let it begin with me. Take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally, let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Thank you, Young People's Chorus of New York City. You're an icon of what this sacred site reminds us.
And my brothers and sisters in the spirit of hope and promise of this sacred spot here in New York, I invite you to stand and exchange a sign of peace.
[12:21:20] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: For everything that we've heard this morning, the beautiful music, the speeches, the prayers, maybe nothing communicates as much as the embraces that we're watching right now with Pope Francis with this phalanx of different faiths set against the weeping wall which has become part of the 9/11 Memorial, embracing Muslim, embracing Jew, embracing all this diversity of faith. The pope clearly affected by this in this ceremony, in this very holy place.
Now, no matter what you believe, he said, the pope, as he spoke, that he could feel the pain of the place. He talked about the water and the reflecting pools as the tears of yesterday and today as the lost ones silent cry to the heavens. He talked about the power of the names that ring them as our memory. He mentioned the 343 lost firefighters who risked their lives going into almost certain death to rescue others. And he talked about the insistence of rejecting extremist uniformity in the name of our greatest strength, which is our diversity, saying that hopefully that effort toward diversity and peace will empower the legacy of those who are lost.
But that embrace, Anderson, it may have said the most.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: A really extraordinary service, and interfaith service, with music.
From here, the pope will shortly be going to have some private time, just a few minutes, in front of the cross that was found amidst the wreckage, formed from steel girders, also a Bible fused to steel. And from there, he'll head back uptown to a school in east Harlem.
For this pontiff who's 78 years old, it is an exhausting day today. He's already spoken at the U.N. This incredibly moving last hour or so here at Ground Zero. And here he is speaking to kids from the Young People's Chorus of New York who sang so beautifully, who sang "Let There be Peace on Earth."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was thinking as I watched these images that it doesn't get more interfaith than this. We had a rabbi praying the prayer of St. Francis during this service. A beautiful, beautiful image. And the pope said that the place of death became a place of life, too. And I thought that closing quote was so beautiful. He said, the lives of loved ones will be present whenever we strive to be prophets, not of tearing down, but of building up prophets of reconciliation, prophets of peace. And that is certainly what this man has been in our midst.
[12:26:11] CUOMO: We're listening to music now that is motivating this point of transition in the ceremony where the holy father, joined by archbishop of New York, Cardinal Dolan, they're going to one of the more signaturly (ph) - signature, symbolic thing that came out of 9/11, the girders from the twisted wreckage of the World Trade Center of a cross. And fused to it, a Bible. The pope has chosen that site for a moment of reflection. We will show you that, if we can, and it will be a moment of silence during this ceremony.
We just finished hearing from the pope, and we're trying to see now on this screen if he's there yet. OK, he's entering the area where this cross is. It's a big point of fascination, of attraction, of a significance for people when they visit here. You'll watch people, as we have. They make their rounds down there, in the museum at the memorial site, and they're fascinated by the weeping wall and what it means, and that's often a site of prayer. And then there is this girder cross.
One point of significance to why this Bible matters is not only was it found in the wreckage, but it was found where almost nothing else was recognizable. And, obviously, give the moment and the context and what it is, it mattered to people then, as did the girder cross as it was randomly cut out of what was still there. So it's part of this shrine.
COOPER: And, of course, that's Archbishop Timothy Dolan to the left of the pope. That's former mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, who was so instrumental in working on this museum where they are now visiting.
So from here the pope will head out to a school in east Harlem. A school from the diocese in east Harlem. He'll then proceed to a mass in Madison Square Garden. Before getting there, he'll be going through Central Park where tens of thousands of people are gathering and have been gathering. It's a ticketed event. Everybody goes through security, airport style security, to line both sides, really all sides of the park. The pope will be making kind of a loop around the park. That will be a great opportunity for people to see the pontiff, perhaps getting their first glimpse of him as he proceeds to Madison Square Garden for this large mass where - where he will be. There will also be events in the preceding two hours before that to encourage people to try to get there as early as possible to get through security as early as possible.
