September 7th, 2026

Dear Friends, Blessings of Christ’s peace to you!

     This week, I’m offering two special episodes of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast” to commemorate 9/11. On today’s episode (part 1 of 2), I speak with my friend Colleen Kelley, who lost who brother in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. A few years earlier, I had baptized Colleen’s daughter at a very happy family event. On Thursday’s episode, (part 2 of 2), I’ll share my own stories as the Red Cross coordinator of chaplains after 9/11.

     On September 11th, Colleen’s brother Bill was at a one day conference at Windows on the World, on the top of the World Trade Center. In the awful days afterwards, she met with other family members to seek nonviolent alternatives to the cycles of violence, and to enhance civilian protection. They formed “September 11th Families For Peaceful Tomorrows,” which has been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize. Its name comes from the Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote, “Wars make poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.” These days, she continues to work with Peaceful Tomorrows in a variety of ways, including the pursuit of justice and accountability for the death of Bill and nearly 3000 others, by numerous visits to observe the military commissions at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba.

     Colleen talks about her brother, the founding of “Peaceful Tomorrows,” her trips to Guantanamo, and their work marching for and promoting peace, even in Afghanistan. We also talk about an amazing mother, who told me as we left Ground Zero during a visit that she had “no room for anger, only compassion for the families of the hijackers.” “Bombing Afghanistan will not bring back my son. It will only increase my grief,” she said.

     For the 25th anniversary, Colleen is organizing a peace walk on September 10th from Union Square to Ground Zero where they will hold an evening vigil. (www.peacefultomorrows.org) “Nonviolence is what Jesus taught and it is hard to believe but until we all truly believe it and make that leap, we are stuck in this inhuman world,” she says. Listen in and be inspired! God bless you, Fr. John

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