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BINLADEN-RELIEF May-11-2011 (990 words) xxxn
Bin Laden's death brings relief, chance to reflect on a violent world
By Dennis SadowskiCatholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- It has been nearly 10 years since her death, but for Thomas Heidenberger, his wife Michele remains foremost in his mind.
Michele died as a crew member on American Airlines Flight 77, which hijackers crashed into the Pentagon Sept. 11, 2001. Memories of the life the two shared in their Chevy Chase, Md., home and the devotion to family are what Heidenberger tries to keep alive.
Never mind that Osama bin Laden is dead, said Heidenberger, a member of Blessed Sacrament Parish in suburban Washington.
"For myself and my children, it (bin Laden's death) did not make an iota of difference," he told Catholic News Service May 10. "It doesn't change things.
"To a certain amount of people, they call it justice," he continued. "I wouldn't even call it that on account it did not bring Michele back. It will not bring back any of the 3,000 who perished that day. To the families themselves it doesn't change things in the broader spectrum."
Heidenberger, now 65, said he's not bitter about Michele's death. Neither does he feel that the man who controlled the al-Qaida terror network got what he deserved because he cannot, as a Catholic, rejoice in the death of another human being. He said he harbors no doubts, however, that the violence that bin Laden espoused and the equally violent assault on his compound feeds a spiral that does little good.
"Violence begets violence. Here in Washington and New York, they're all waiting for the next shoe to drop," he said.
"Where does it get you? I don't want 3,000 people or one individual to go through what we had to go through 10 years ago."
Heidenberger's sentiments were echoed by others who lost family members in the terrorist attacks in the wake of bin Laden's death.
Elsewhere, pastors in parishes that continue to reach out to family members of those who died in the gruesome destruction of Sept. 11 adopted much the same message offered by Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, May 2 hours after bin Laden's death became public. In a statement, Father Lombardi called upon Christians not to rejoice in a man's death, but to work toward greater peace and reduced hatred.
Colleen Kelly, a nurse practitioner who is a member of Visitation Parish in the Bronx and whose brother died in the World Trade Center, told CNS that even though she felt relieved that bin Laden was no longer a threat, she still wondered if there was a way he could have been captured rather than killed.
A founder of September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Kelly noted that it was diligent intelligence gathering as opposed to the long-term wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that unearthed bin Laden's whereabouts.
Another member of Peaceful Tomorrows, Anne Mulderry, a Catholic who lives in Kinderhook, N.Y., said that while she adheres to nonviolence, the action taken against bin Laden was "the much better choice" over widespread bombing in a civilian neighborhood.
Mulderry's son, Stephen, 33, died in the attack at the World Trade Center.
"I felt sad and it surprised me how filled with sadness I was," Mulderry said of bin Laden's demise.
"On the other hand, I have to admit, I do feel that Osama bin Laden was a voice preaching hatred and a voice the world must cope with," she added. "The world must still those voices teaching hatred if the world is going to respond responsibly.
"In one sense, Osama bin Laden had chosen his own death. He lived by the sword and he died by the sword."
In a brief message in the parish bulletin May 8, Msgr. Joseph Masiello, pastor of Holy Trinity Parish in Westfield, N.J., said he believed the action against bin Laden was appropriate. He noted that Americans learned of bin Laden's death on the night of May 1, the same day in 1945 that Germany announced the death of Adolf Hitler.
"When no amount of words will ever make a difference, then the sad, painful, so difficult decision must be made, after much and profound reflection and as a truly last resort, to take up arms to show love of and provide protection for a neighbor under attack," he wrote. "And so, if ever a 'moral' war were fought, I believe it to be World War II and the war against terror."
Msgr. Masiello, whose parish lost four members at the World Trade Center, told CNS that even though he found the death of bin Laden was just, "death is not something to celebrate."
The death toll from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in suburban Ridgewood, N.J., was 10 and Father Ronald Rozniak, pastor, said he made sure to reach out to as many parishioners as possible who lost a family member at the World Trade Center in the days following the U.S. raid in Pakistan.
"I offered them a word of concern, knowing that this raised the whole memory of what happened on 9/11 to a new level. I don't think it's ever out of their memories," he said.
"Most that I talked to were in between," he explained. "As Christians they knew that you can't rejoice at someone's death and yet at the same time they felt somewhat of a relief that at least that page had been turned."
At St. Joseph Parish in Jersey City, N.J., just across the Hudson River from the southern tip of Manhattan where the World Trade Center was located, Father Thomas Iwanowski, pastor, said the death brings "a sense of closure" to families but that it deserved little other attention.
"It was the death of one man," he said. "I don't think he deserved any more attention than that. Then (by focusing on bin Laden) we make him out to be more important than he was. He was a misguided evil person. It's time to move on. His death is not going to make anybody's life better."
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