Pope Francis Visits Ground Zero For September 25 Interfaith Prayer Service - Photos From Roosevelt Island Resident

Image From Allexis Villafane

Roosevelt Island resident Alexis Villafane attended the September 25 Ground Zero Interfaith Prayer Service by Pope Francis and shares these photos.

Images From Alexis Villafane

According to the NY Times:

Pope Francis stood flanked by an imam in a skullcap and a rabbi in a prayer shawl on what amounts to hallowed ground: an underground chamber where the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center are memorialized.

Standing before a steel beam salvaged from the rubble, in a place still haunted by violence committed in the name of Islamic extremism, Francis on Friday called on the hundreds of leaders from the world’s religions who surrounded him to be a “force for reconciliation.”

“For all our differences and disagreements, we can live in a world of peace,” he said at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. “In opposing every attempt to create a rigid uniformity, we can and must build unity on the basis of our diversity of languages, cultures and religion, and lift our voices against everything which would stand in the way of such unity.”...

Here's the full Ground Zero interfaith prayer service.