‘God was with us’: 9/11 firefighter turned priest reflects on 25-year anniversary 

Tom Colucci was a lieutenant in the New York City Fire Department on 9/11, but what he saw brought him closer to Christ and ultimately changed his career path.

Twenty-five years later, Colucci is a Catholic priest serving in a parish about an hour and a half north of the city.

“Some people say, ‘Where was God that day? Could he send a legion of angels to stop these planes or whatever?’” Colucci told Heartlander News. “But you know, Christ was present. The volunteers that came down, all the firefighters, the police, the EMS people, and all the ambulances with doctors and nurses … That was the body of Christ, so He was there.”

Colucci was with Engine Three in Lower Manhattan on the morning of the attacks. He rushed to the scene and spent the day digging through the rubble, working until midnight before being relieved. His firehouse lost five men that day.

“We had to have that hope, and so we just kept digging,” he said. “We came in and literally lived at the firehouse for three weeks, and then by the end of September they realized there weren’t any survivors.”

Colucci said he had considered becoming a priest before 9/11, but the tragedy strengthened his faith as he witnessed suffering and attended funeral after funeral.

“These guys died tragically, too soon, and there’s got to be another life,” he said. “So, it just kind of reaffirmed my faith even more.”

Colucci noted that churches were packed for months following the attacks.

He also recalled that there was an outpouring of support for him and his fellow firefighters, with strangers offering food and shelter while volunteers from Trinity Episcopal Church set up a tent near Ground Zero.

On Oct. 4 – which Colucci noted is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi – workers clearing debris uncovered a large iron cross standing upright in the rubble. It was mounted on a concrete slab, and firefighters and ironworkers would stop to pray beside it.

“So, that was showing that God was with us. God was with the workers on the feast of St. Francis,” he said.

Colucci noted that well over 400 firefighters have died of 9/11-related cancers and illnesses since the attacks – surpassing the number that died on the day itself. He still officiates funerals for some of those men today.

He retired from the fire department in 2005 with 20 years of service, then spent time at a Benedictine monastery before confirming his call to the priesthood. Colucci was ordained in 2016, the first retired firefighter to become a priest, according to EWTN.

Colucci serves at the Most Precious Blood Parish in Wallkill, New York, and has returned for the past nine years to celebrate Mass at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in honor of the firefighters lost on 9/11. FDNY chaplain Father Mychal Judge was the first confirmed casualty on 9/11.

“There’s a lot of parallels between the two professions,” Colucci said. “People often say, as a firefighter I was saving lives. Now I’m saving souls. So, that’s the whole giving of self, you know, which Christ asks us to do.”