September 9, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – My remembrance of the 9/11 terrorist attack is the same as that of many Americans. I was on my computer working when I heard about the first plane hitting. Minutes later, I watched live as the second plane made its deadly impact. Nevertheless, despite my personal recollections, what strikes me most about 9/11 when I think of it now is the story of a local New Yorker – a story which I only heard about last year.
I was in Rome in October 2010 giving an address at the HLI World Prayer Congress there. The heroic pro-life leader Msgr. Philip Reilly, the founder of Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, was also there as a speaker and he delivered a fascinating address.
Monsignor Reilly told of how he was outside in New York City, with a clear view of the twin towers, when the planes hit. “On the morning of 9/11 I was praying and counseling outside of a large abortion clinic in Brooklyn,” said Msgr. Reilly. “The abortion mill is located a few blocks from New York Harbor, at a point where you could look across the Harbor and easily see the Twin Towers.”
“The wind was blowing that day from Manhattan to Brooklyn,” recalled the 50-year-veteran pro-life leader. “So when the Towers came down, an incredible black cloud came over our heads. Outside the abortion mill, it became midnight at midday.”
Monsignor said he wanted nothing more at that moment to go to Ground Zero to help and to pray. However, he knew that his duty at the time was to care for and pray for those women entering the abortion centre outside of which he stood praying.
Reilly noted that due to the disaster all businesses stopped, but, he said, “There was a bizarre exception, namely the killing of unborn babies continued, especially at the mill where I was counseling. Inside the abortion mill, they were actually watching the events unfold on TV, yet the killing of the babies inside continued.”
“Thus I could not leave the mill at that time to go to Ground Zero,” he said. “I didn’t get to Ground Zero until it was midnight.”
When he finally did arrive at Ground Zero he says he felt totally helpless. As is his custom in such situations, he decided to pray his rosary. And as he prayed he had the following vision (Since the day I heard this vision, every time I hear of 9/11 my thoughts gravitate to these thoughts):
As I prayed the rosary, I closed my eyes and with my eyes closed, I suddenly saw the people in the Tower getting ready for work at 9 a.m. Some were getting a drink of water, others a cup of coffee, all feeling safe and secure inside their office. Then I saw the terrorist plane breaking into their secure quarters and exploding like a great bomb with the people in the office having no place to hide, no place to flee. Then still standing at midnight at Ground Zero, I saw not the people in the Towers, but I saw a womb with an unborn child inside, feeling so safe and secure and suddenly breaking through the wall of the womb was this terrorist object, the instrument of the abortionist, with the child having no place to hide, no place to flee from this terrorist instrument.
Msgr. Reilly concluded his address noting that when he opened his eyes, there at Ground Zero, “it became absolutely clear to me that Ground Zero is ongoing. Be not afraid then to go Golgotha, to the abortion clinic, to Ground Zero near you, to rescue the unborn children.”
