2 of Longest WTC Beams at Sacred Heart Church in Albuquerque
An excellent Los Angeles Times article on the fate of World Trade Center steel notes this design in Albuqurque, NM:
Father James Moore blessed two of the longest beams before they left New York on a freight truck bound for his church, Sacred Heart in Albuquerque. When they arrived, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Albuquerque consecrated the beams with sacred oil. Sacred Heart Church is in Barelas, one of Albuquerque’s oldest and poorest neighborhoods, just south of downtown. Many of the area’s buildings have been neglected, some abandoned altogether.
“Our neighborhood has kind of died,” said the neighborhood association president, Robert Vigil. But by working together to build the belfry that will house the two World Trade Center beams, the residents of Barelas have become a community again, Vigil said. They are devoting time and energy to raising the $250,000 the church needs to complete the bell tower. They have planned that the beams, each almost 30 feet long, will stand on end, resting against two walls of the tower. So far, about $100,000 has been raised, most in small bills.
Moore marvels at the power the beams hold over all who see them.
When he just touched the beam, Vigil said, “9/11 came back once again. I could picture that day. I could picture everything happening. The fact that lives were lost.”
Every day, three to 10 people visit Sacred Heart’s courtyard, where a beam is on display until the bell tower is completed. Some visitors lay flowers or rosaries at the base of the steel. Others leave pictures and poems.
But most simply touch the beam, say a prayer, and walk away.
“The mixture of blood and bodies and steel and everything that was a part of the twin towers in that moment of horrible devastation … led to a sacralization of all that material,” Emory professor Laderman said.