'Reverence for all those affected by that day'

Most Reverend Robert Coyle, auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, learned of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks while on active duty in the U.S. Navy.

"My ship had just returned from deployment, she went into the shipyard for some, you know, repairs," Coyle said to about 250 attendees during his homily at a 9/11 memorial ceremony at the Catholic Cemetery of the Holy Rood in Westbury Friday afternoon.

He was on a ship in the shipyard when someone showed him the World Trade Center on fire on television.

“’Hey, Father, you’re from New York, what’s going on?’”, Coyle said. "We’re watching the news for a while and all of the sudden we saw the second plane go into the other tower, and we knew something was just not right."

The ship went on alert, he said. "We didn’t know what was going to come next," he said.

"As we gather today, we remember the events of that day, and we can never, ever forget them," Coyle said. "It’s important for us to remember and to have reverence for all those affected by that day."

"We know as we commemorate 9/11, it was such an effect on your lives, and all of us, directly and indirectly, we need to remember, it changed out nation, it changed the world forever."