On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001—Fr. Ron Wagner’s day off—he received a call from someone on staff at the Cathedral of Mary of the Assumption in Saginaw: Had he seen the news?
Like most Americans that day, Father Ron, rector at the Cathedral at the time, saw the unimaginable scenes of destruction in New York City when he turned on the television that morning.
Two airplanes—hijacked by terrorists—flew into the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York. A third flew into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. And a fourth crashed into an empty field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after heroic passengers stormed the cockpit and wrestled control from hijackers to steer the plane away from its intended target—believed to be the White House or the U.S. Capitol.
“The world stopped in a sense,” said Fr. Ron, reflecting on the 25th anniversary of that day.
People packed into churches all over the world, trying to make sense of what had happened. “A lot of people’s faith was shaken on 9/11,” he said. People felt more vulnerable, not knowing whether another attack was coming. And they believed that “if it could happen in the United States, it could happen anywhere.”
Bishop Ken Untener sent a fax to all 108 parishes (now 56) in the diocese, asking them to toll their bells at 7:15 p.m. and hold a prayer service at 7:30 p.m. to pray for the 2,977 victims and their families. “This is a time to be together,” Bishop Ken wrote in his fax.
That evening, Fr. Ron said, it was standing room only at the Cathedral.
On Friday—the 25th anniversary of 9/11—some in the Diocese will gather again.
At the Resurrection of the Lord Parish, 423 Cedar St., Standish, a memorial service begins at 5:30 p.m. Friday at the Our Lady of Sorrows shrine. It will be hosted by the Arenac County Veterans Club. As in the past, area first responders, parishioners, and all those who want to stop by will gather to pray for the victims and their families. A long, brick walkway leads to a statute of Mary, who stands in the middle of two tall granite panels meant to symbolize the Twin Towers.
In July 2025, Bishop Gruss blessed the monument at the start of the walkway leading up to the shrine that has an actual piece of steel from the South Tower embedded in it. The piece was recovered from the debris and rubble in the aftermath of the attacks. Etched on the front of the monument is a picture of the Twin Towers with the words “We Will Never Forget.” Below are the words: “We honor and remember brave and innocent lives lost at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.”
Dave Ramsay, the fire chief of the Pinconning and Fraser Fire Department, created the monument after Dallas Compeau—a retired ironworker and Resurrection of the Lord parishioner—brought him a piece of steel from the Twin Towers and asked if he could help create a monument to honor the first responders and those who lost their lives on 9/11. A fellow retired ironworker had gifted Dallas the piece of steel after working on a 9/11 monument in Saratoga Springs, New York.
For a time, it sat on Dallas’ living room shelf. And then Dallas approached Fr. Ron about creating a 9/11 monument that would incorporate the piece of steel from the Twin Towers. Father Ron thought it was a good idea and gave his blessing.
Dave, also the owner of the Lee-Ramsay Funeral Home in Standish and the Ramsay Group Funeral Service, agreed to help build the monument. With the assistance of Huron Granite in Linwood, Dave designed the monument that he also helped fund, along with the parish.
Dave—who attends the Prince of Peace Parish in Linwood—remembers sitting in his office at the funeral home in Pinconning, watching the “tremendous devastation and destruction” of that day 25 years ago on his 12-inch, black-and-white television set.
“The commitment of the first responders was overwhelming,” Dave said. As the head of a volunteer fire department, Dave was particularly struck by members of the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department in Pennsylvania who rushed from their day jobs to the site of the United Airlines Flight 93 plane crash. All 44 on board lost their lives. Volunteer fire departments typically have few resources, Dave said, and responding to a tragedy of that magnitude is almost unimaginable.
Father Tom McNamara was the pastor at Saint John the Evangelist (now St. Jude Thaddeus) Parish in Essexville 25 years ago. They had just celebrated morning Mass when they received a call from a parishioner, telling them to turn on the television.
“The whole nation stopped what they were doing,” he said.
Then around noon, they received the fax from Bishop Ken, calling everyone to prayer that evening. Even though Bishop Ken asked all parishes to toll their bells at 7:15 p.m., Fr. Tom said they also tolled the bells at Saint John the Evangelist that afternoon. “We had a nice turnout all day with parishioners coming in to pray.”
Father Tom, who was ordained by Bishop Ken, doesn’t remember what he said at the prayer service that evening or how long the service lasted. But he remembers the sense of unity as everyone gathered together to process their grief, sorrow, and shock.
“Whatever was important to us when we got up this morning is not as important now,” Bishop Ken wrote in the fax. “We’re all stunned. The suffering is so massive that it’s hard to think of anything. If Jesus, the Son of God, wept over Jerusalem, we can weep now.
“The tenderness of God,” he wrote, “goes out to everyone touched by this—which is to all of us.”