REFLECTION: What is a Christian response to bin Laden’s death?

by James Martin, SJ, from America

As someone who worked at Ground Zero in the days and weeks following 9/11 I rejoiced to hear that Osama Bin Laden’s long reign of terror, which had dealt death, destruction and untold misery to millions across the world, had finally come to an end.  As a Christian, though, I cannot rejoice at the death of a human being, no matter how monstrous he was.

On the morning of Sept. 11 2001, I was working at my desk at America magazine in Manhattan.  My mother, who lives in Philadelphia, called me to tell me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.  When I ran out of my office and looked down Sixth Avenue, I could see the towers smoldering, inky black smoke pouring out of their tops.  Already sirens were blaring, and men and women were running through the streets weeping, frantically trying to make calls on cell phones to loved ones.

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