Cincinnati-area clergy began opening their doors and offering words of hope and comfort as details of Tuesday's attacks unfolded.

        Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk compared the violence to “a flash of evil” erupting like fire “from red-hot coals in the bottom of a fireplace.

        “Human beings can be very evil,” he said. “The potential for human evil is practically limitless.”

        Archbishop Pilarczyk called a special news conference and offered these recommendations to the public:

        • Do not panic. Do not despair.

        • Pray. It's important that people keep in touch with the Lord.

        • Do not hate. Often when things happen, the first spontaneous reaction is, “Whose fault is it? Who can we blame?

        The Rev. Mearle Griffith, pastor at Church of the Saviour, said he saw as many as 40 people at the church on Tuesday.

        “I tell them to keep their faith,” he said. “This is an issue of the insanity of humanity. ... In times like this, God is our rock and our solid foundation.”

        Describing the Lord as “powerful enough and smart enough to bring something good out of something like this,” the archbishop said, “If you don't believe in the Lord, you don't have much to hang on to.”

        Herbert Thompson, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio, delivered a prayer-service message on Tuesday that centered on the tragedies in New York and Washington.

        “See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all,” he said.

        Priests at Christ Church Cathedral, 318 E. Fourth St., downtown, scrambled to organize a special interfaith prayer service at noon Tuesday and said the church would remain open for concerned Cincinnatians through the afternoon.

        The United Church of Christ quickly established an online forum at www.ucc.org to give people “the opportunity to express their feelings and reactions and provide links to updates from Church World Service, the disaster relief arm of the National Council of Churches.

        “In the coming days we all will be tempted to surrender to our rage, to seek vengeance and to be consumed by bitterness,” said the Rev. John H. Thomas, UCC general minister and president. “I call upon the members of the (church) to join in reflection about the culture of violence that consumes our world to pray night and day for God's presence and to resist the impulse to respond to violence with violence.”

        Many other Tristate churches also called special prayer services on Tuesday afternoon and evening.

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