A cross that was formed amid the devastation of the 9/11 tragedy – and the priest who prayed in front of it – have provoked anger and court proceedings.

Father Brian Jordan is finally emerging from a nightmare. For months, he had been named as a defendant in a suit brought by atheists who protested him praying before the “Trade Center Cross” after Sept. 11. The atheist group recently dropped their attack against Father Jordan — for now.

But the case continues, and it raises troubling questions about the emerging anti-religious, and specifically anti-Catholic, prejudices in American society, a prejudice only compounded by the Obama administration’s insistence on forcing Catholic institutions to violate their beliefs through the provision of health insurance for contraception services, including abortion-inducing drugs.

From the wreckage of the Twin Towers after the Sept. 11 attack, rescue workers found steel beams fused together in the shape of a cross. Many Christians working at the site in the days and weeks afterward found the object comforting. A Catholic priest, Franciscan Brian Jordan, blessed the cross, and services were performed there. He notes that “I spent many, many months ministering to the rescue workers at Ground Zero. Their spirits were uplifted by remembering that God is still with us, even when unimaginable disaster strikes. And the World Trade Center Cross became a source of inspiration for those workers.”

The cross is now located within the National September 11 Memorial & Museum on government property. That decision spurred a lawsuit by American Atheists, Inc. against the memorial, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the state of New Jersey and other people and entities, including Father Jordan and his parish, the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus. The atheists want the cross removed from the memorial, despite it being an integral part of the history of 9/11 and its importance to many of the rescue workers.