Albuquerque church hosts 9/11 memorial with World Trade Center beams

A 9/11 memorial at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Albuquerque features two full-sized steel beams from the World Trade Center, the only such beams in New Mexico. The beams, acquired in 2002, draw visitors to the downtown chapel each year on the anniversary of the attacks.

“Throughout the day today a lot of people will be in and out just wanting to touch these beams,” Deacon Robert Vigil said.

Inside, visitors are greeted by the two full-sized beams directly from the World Trade Center in New York City. The beams were acquired about a year after the attack, along with a memorial plaque with the names of those who lost their lives.

“We’re the only one in the whole state of New Mexico that is honored enough to have this,” Grand Knight Richard Frias said.

Back in 2001, the chapel had recently been torn down due to structural decline, and church leaders were trying to get it rebuilt. They did not have the funds to build a bell tower.

“Someone came up with the idea to write to the mayor of New York, see if they’ll donate us two full sized beams to build our chapel,” Vigil said. “So we did that.”

Sacred Heart put in that request a few months after the September 11 attacks, and the request was granted in May of 2002. The church arranged transport of the beams.

“So they blessed the beams at ground zero,” Vigil said. “The trucker was there right on time and began trucking cross country here to our community. He said along the way at every state line people were gathered to greet him and touch those beams all the way to New Mexico, to our community here.”

Once the beams arrived, people started donating to the church, enough to afford construction of the tower.

“This has really been something of importance to our nation, importance to our state, and importance to our community,” Vigil said. “We’re very thankful that we can still tell the story and especially to our youngsters that were not born yet, and give them a piece of history. Not only give them a piece of history, but bring them in to witness it and touch it.”

A memorial ceremony was scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at Sacred Heart on Stover Avenue downtown, with testimonials from people with connections to the attacks. The church also planned to have two lit-up towers outside the chapel over the weekend.

“Having the blessed, sacred beams from 9/11 in a very remote place in New Mexico and the Barelas community which is very small but very rich in heritage is humbling,” Frias said.