AP:

NEW YORK – The first midnight Mass at ground zero was celebrated as workers were still clearing debris from the World Trade Center and recovering bodies after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The last was held Monday night, giving police, firefighters, recovery workers and victims’ families a final chance to pray on Christmas Eve at the site, where intensifying construction is increasingly taking up open space. “A lot of us felt sad this was the last official midnight Mass on-site, but at the same time, there was a sense of relief. This brought closure for us,” the Rev. Brian Jordan said early Tuesday after the service ended. A chaplain who spent 10 months at ground zero after Sept. 11, he has since presided over every midnight Mass there.