Thousands attend WTC memorial

NEW YORK -- With the smoldering gray rubble of the World Trade Center a sorrowful backdrop, the families of people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack gathered Sunday for a memorial service filled with prayer and song.

Thousands of mourners, some holding photographs of their loved ones, rose from their plastic chairs as police officer Daniel Rodriguez opened the service with "The Star-Spangled Banner." Cardinal Edward Egan delivered the invocation, standing at a podium draped in black.

"They were innocent and they were brutally, viciously, unjustly taken from us," said Egan, the leader of New York's Roman Catholic archdiocese. He called them "strong and dedicated citizens" who were "executives and office workers, managers and laborers."

"We are in mourning, Lord. We have hardly any tears left to shed," he said.

More than 4,000 people are still missing.

Many of the mourners wore the jackets and headgear of the police and fire units to which their loved ones belonged.

"We are neighbors, we are family members and we are friends -- and we hurt," said Imam Izak-El Mu'eed Pasha, the police department's Muslim chaplain. "Let us stand together and pray and not let our faiths be used in such a way. ... They cannot use our faiths and do these terrible things."

For only the second time in the seven weeks since the attack, the round-the-clock recovery and demolition work at the site was halted to allow for the memorial service. The first time was on Oct. 11 at 8:48 a.m. -- one month to the minute after the first hijacked plane struck the trade center's north tower -- when a moment of silence was observed.

Yellow, white and purple flowers ringed a stage erected in front of a jagged mountain of darkened wreckage. On either side of the stage were huge video screens with images of American flags and the words "God Bless America" and "Sept. 11, 2001."

9,200 attend rites

City officials estimated the crowd at 9,200, far more than expected. Mourners filled the rows of chairs to capacity; some people were forced to stand.

The crisp autumn air was tinged with an acrid smell from the debris, a constant in lower Manhattan since the twin towers collapsed.