St John's Cathedral, Limerick, was packed yesterday for midday Mass in commemoration of the dead. "It is an occasion that shows us very starkly the preciousness and fragility of human life," the Catholic Bishop of Limerick, Dr Donal Murray, said.
He said God's love was the only one that could "look the most appalling evil in the face and overcome it".
The horror of the attacks taught people something positive, paradoxical though that sounded. "We are one human family. We are all brothers and sisters. If there is any good that can come from this evil, it might be that we would grasp and hold that truth more firmly and live it more generously and more effectively."
He welcomed many Americans, stranded in Shannon since Tuesday and in the congregation of 2,000. "We want to tell the American people who are here in Limerick, or who have visited us here, the many Limerick people in the United States, and all those who have been touched by these dreadful events, that they are in our prayers and in our hearts," he said.
