Honestly, those who made it out at all got out very quickly. The knowledge now it was a terrorist act deepened that. My fundamental conviction had been from the very first moment that the crash happened, that I was meant to be there by God’s providence. What was going through your head in that moment? So as I’m just in there with my purple stole and my prayer book for the sick and dying and my holy oils. When did you realize or find out that this was actually a terrorist attack? So it was first that sense of something roaring over top of us, and my first sight of it was looking instinctively to my right, then seeing the plane come down, as sort of a crash landing, right into the building and simply disappearing into the building with that crash. We all either heard or felt the vibrations of the plan coming over us - apparently, it clipped a light pole right nearby as it came in, so it was 25 feet over the cars right there on the highway. And in that moment, without warning, the plane came over the highway, down really low. I’m sitting right in front of the Pentagon, in standstill traffic in the left lane of the highway, literally with my hands to my head realizing I’m finally late for this 10am burial service at Arlington National Cemetery. There was a total traffic jam that might have had to do with the World Trade Center.īut it was basically 9:35am. I took that route, which was not the way I would have gone if I remembered how had gone, and basically ended up right in front of the Pentagon. So I was heading there and saw the exit for the Pentagon: Route 27. In any event, I didn’t remember, and without really time to stop and get directions, I just got in my car and decided I would wing it. I had only been there, to Arlington National Cemetery, once, maybe even a couple times, for a burial service. I had to be at Arlington National Cemetery at 10 o’clock, so I pretty much just got right into my car. After the Mass was over, I was running late for a burial service. So the attacks at the World Trade Center happened during the Mass. Anthony of Padua - my first assignment as a priest - there in northern Virginia, right near the Pentagon. When 9/11 took place, where were you, as a priest, as that unfolded? In this interview with the Register, Father McGraw, now stationed at a parish mission in the Dominican Republic, reflects on that catastrophic day and its aftermath and where God is calling the country even now. Terrorists slammed American Airlines Flight 77 into the side of the Pentagon before his very eyes, and the nation would be forever changed. But at 9:37am, the priest who took the wrong exit discovered himself at the right place in God’s providence. He had celebrated a Mass for schoolchildren, was late for a burial at Arlington National Cemetery, and stuck in traffic at the Pentagon. 11, 2001, Father Stephen McGraw was still getting his feet wet in ministry. Today’s Catholic Newspaper Archives open menuįather Stephen McGraw | Diocese of Arlington, VirginiaĪs a new priest on the morning of Sept.Magazines Published by Today’s Catholic.History of the Archdiocese of San Antonio.Tweets by Auxiliary Bishop Michael Boulette open menu.Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller, MSpS open menu.