PARMA, OH — Friar JohnPaul Cafiaro is a chaplain for the Parma Police Department and the Padua Franciscan High School.
The native New Yorker said the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center 23 years ago is something he will never forget.
"It’s incredible even after 23 years, it strikes your heart the same way. It’s almost like it was yesterday," said Cafiaro.
Cafiaro said it's not just a moment in history, but it's a day he lost friends.
"Many from my high school when my family moved from New York to Jersey City. There were a lot of people who worked in the Twin Towers, a lot of the officers. I think there were 35 from my high school," said Cafiaro.
That day, he thought he might have lost his father since he worked there.
"My dad could have been there working and when I saw the buildings come down, I didn’t know," said Cafiaro. "There was no way of getting in touch and I learned later that afternoon he was not, he had taken the week off.”
Friar Cafiaro also lost his cousin, Steven Dennis Cafiaro. His name, along with the other victims, is forever remembered not only on the Flag of Honor Cafiaro has with him but also at the 9/11 memorial in New York.
Wednesday evening, Cafiaro, along with the bishop, honored those men and women police officers and firefighters who have died in the line of duty, along with those who died on 9/11, during the Blue Mass at the cathedral in downtown Cleveland.
Cafiaro says two weeks after the terrorist attack, he was called to Ground Zero as part of the group called NOVA, or the National Organization of Victim Assistance, as a chaplain to lend assistance. "Just to listen to their stories, so many of them were still in shock," said Cafiaro.
When he returned home, he received a letter from a firefighter at Ground Zero and a box.
"I lifted out of the box a cross and he said this cross was made from the melted girders of the World Trade Center," said Cafiaro.
Cafiaro said he began to cry because he thought of all the lives of those who were a part of the cross. Especially his friend, fellow Friar Mychal Judge, who was the first confirmed casualty of the 9/11 attack.
“And as you hold it you almost see faces looking out at you," says Friar Cafiaro.
