The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is calling for continued healing of his country, asking Catholics and people of goodwill to work towards peace in a “fractured and divided world,” on the eve of the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City issued a statement ahead of the momentous anniversary Friday, which will mark 25 years since the terror attacks that killed nearly 3000 people and caused tumult around the globe.

Coakley asked all Catholics to join him in prayer for the victims of the attacks, and expressed his closeness to the victims’ families and friends.

“In a special way,” Coakley said, “we lovingly embrace in prayer the victims’ families and friends, who still mourn the irretrievable loss of their loved ones on that day.”

“We also remember the first responders and emergency workers, so many who gave their lives in selfless acts of courage,” Coakley said.

The attacks involved the hijacking of four planes, two of which the hijackers into the World Trade Center towers in New York, while another they flew into the Pentagon; the fourth aircraft crashed in rural Pennsylvania after passengers and crew fought back against the terrorists and prevented it from being flown into its intended target.

Coakley said Americans’ faith “lifted us up and sustained us” during the aftermath of the attacks.

“As a nation,” he said, “we found ourselves turning to God in prayer and looking to our faith with a new intensity and a sense of unity.”

The anniversary comes at a time of global strife, with Russia and Ukraine at war since February 2022, and serious conflict in the Holy Land and the broader Middle East.

Against this backdrop, Coakley called on Catholics to “renew our commitment to be Christ’s instruments of peace in an increasingly fractured and divided world.”

“The building of peace in our country and around the world — a mission that enables us to be called children of God — is the great challenge of our time,” he said.

“Our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, tells us that peace is more than just a goal, it is a presence and a journey. He says that even in places where only rubble remains, and despair seems inevitable, we still find people who have not forgotten peace,” Coakley said.

Coakley concluded his statement with a call to prayer for “continued healing, for the souls of all those lost on that day and the comfort of their families.”

“[L]et us implore the Holy Spirit to conform us, increasingly, into the image of Jesus, the Prince of Peace,” Coakley said, “and together build a civilization of love and universal fraternity.”

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