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On Jan. 14, New York 1 named the staff at the Mount Manresa Jesuit Retreat
House on Staten Island, N.Y., "New Yorker of the Week." The all-news
New York City television station has honored Rev.. Jack Ryan, S.J., and
his associates for the counseling, hospitality and personal assistance
they have offered to police, firefighters and service workers combing through
the rubble of the twin towers, searching for victims' remains, and for
criminal evidence at Fresh Kills Landfill, a Staten Island refuse site.
Fr. Ryan, Sr. Maureen Skelly, Rev. Joseph Browne and Rev. Tom Quinn, S.J.,
'57 visit the Fresh Kills site every day to talk, assist and counsel the
workers. They have also opened the retreat house campus to these workers
for a bit of quiet, relaxation and respite. "We wanted to provide
space and a psychologically friendly zone when they come back from the
8 or 12 hours (working) at Fresh Kills," explains Fr. Ryan to New
York 1's Roger Clark. "Whether in good weather or in bad, they're
at sifting machines, and they're going through the tons and tons and hundreds
of thousands of tons of debris."
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