NEW YORK?With the smoldering gray rubble of the World Trade Center a sorrowful backdrop, the families of people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack gathered Sunday for a memorial service filled with prayer and song.

Thousands of mourners, some holding photographs of their loved ones, rose from their plastic chairs as Police Officer Daniel Rodriguez opened the service with “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Cardinal Edward Egan delivered the invocation, standing at a podium draped in black.

“They were innocent, and they were brutally, viciously, unjustly taken from us,” said Egan, the leader of New York’s Roman Catholic archdiocese. He called them “strong and dedicated citizens” who were “executives and office workers, managers and laborers.”

“We are in mourning, Lord, we have hardly any tears left to shed,” he said.

Many of the mourners wore the jackets and headgear of the police and fire units to which their loved ones belonged.