St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Orland Park joined parishes and schools around the Archdiocese of Chicago in commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The parish’s Knights of Columbus Council 16369 sponsored a Blue Mass on Sept. 11 to remember those who died in the attacks and to honor first responders past and present.

The Blue Mass is a Catholic tradition celebrated since 1934 for police, firefighters, emergency medical personnel, dispatchers and other emergency responders and their families. It is intended to honor and pray for all active, retired, and deceased men and women who dedicated their lives to the protection and safety of our communities.

The name of the Blue Mass is related to the blue-colored uniforms worn by many first responders.

The killing of Chicago Police Officer Ella French and the wounding of her partner, Carlos Yanez Jr., along with the tenor of the times, inspired Jim Walsh to propose the Mass.

“Certainly, the effects of Officer French’s passing and the wounding of her partner was a motivating factor for me to try to do something,” he said.

The parish contacted police, fire and emergency personnel on the local and state level to invite them to the Mass.

“We wanted to spread the word that there are people who truly support these individuals and acknowledge the tremendous work that they do by protecting us,” Walsh said. “We wanted to try and find ways to come together as a community and to pray to God and to ask for his guidance and direction in coming together and going forward.”

In his homily, Father Edward Upton, pastor emeritus, reflected on the tragedy of 9/11 and the first responders involved.

“Even after the passing of these 20 years it remains difficult to comprehend the impact of those past events. On that morning we watched on television planes crashing, buildings collapsing, thousands losing their lives,” he said. “How could skyscrapers just vanish into piles of twisted debris?”

He focused on the first responders who selflessly responded to the attacks and the many of them who lost their lives trying to save others.

“These men and women gave their lives. They rescued many people. Witnessed so much destruction,” Upton said. “They were indeed lights in the darkness.”

He placed their response in the context of the Beatitudes, which were the focus of the Gospel reading for Mass.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. These men and women were exhausted, overwhelmed, angry, frustrated. They worked under great pressure,” he said. “Yet they were able to know that these rescue efforts were done in the presence of God. The value of life was the ultimate foundation for their work.”

Quoting, “Blessed are those who mourn, they will be comforted,” Upton said much of the responders’ work dealt with death, recovering the remains of the dead and informing their families.

Quoting the Beatitude, “They hunger and thirst for righteousness,” he said, “They gave so many hours in a rescue aware of the suffering, yet they stayed strong for those in need and cared for them.”

He thanked those who served during 9/11.

“I believe they did this because they believed in faith. They were simply not helping people, carrying out tasks, but reminding themselves that God was present even in those very difficult days,” he said.

Marist High School freshman Anna Walsh was not yet born when 9/11 occurred but attended the Mass to support her father, Jim Walsh, and to support first responders.

“All of the 9/11 stuff, it’s really touching. Just hearing everybody’s stories and where they were it really gets me emotional. It touches my heart,” Anna Walsh said, wearing a T-shirt that said “I support our first responders.” “It’s something that people should really look at and see that there were real people out there that did sacrifice their lives for us.”

Seeing the coverage of 9/11 and hearing some of the phone calls people made to their loved ones in their final moments moved her, she said.

“It just teaches me to be so grateful where I am now. I couldn’t even imagine what I would be doing in that experience or what it would have been like,” she said. “My heart goes to all those people who did go through that experience.”

Gregory Okon, a retired commander of the Orland Park Police Department, brought his wife, daughter and grandchildren to the Mass.

“I was working during 9/11,” he said. “I was getting ready to go to work and I was putting my uniform on watching TV. It was like one of these out of body experiences. I’m like, ‘What is happening?’”

When he got to work, the department started making plans on how it would respond if it faced similar attacks.

“I remember stopping home in the afternoon and there wasn’t a plane in the sky,” Okon said. “It was an eerie silence. It was a time in my life that I will never forget.”