Hands off 9/11 cross (Port Authority rethinks plans to remove WTC icon)

The Port Authority scrapped plans yesterday to uproot and lock away the steel cross at Ground Zero after revelations about the move in the Daily News sparked an uproar. The iconic symbol - which has comforted many since the crossed beams were found in the rubble of the World Trade Center - was quietly headed for a hangar at Kennedy Airport in the fall to keep it safe during construction.

But an exclusive story about that plan in yesterday's News set off a wave of Holy Week horror from the religious community to construction unions - and the PA backed off.

"We recognize the importance of the crossed beams, which have been a fixture at the World Trade Center site since 9/11," the agency said in a statement.

"We are exploring opportunities to relocate this important artifact to a nearby accessible public location while construction moves forward."

Sources said the cross might end up on the Church St. side of St. Peter's Catholic Church, a block north of Ground Zero, until a permanent location is decided.

"If we can be of any help, we will be," said the Rev. Kevin Madigan, the pastor of St. Peter's. "The cross shouldn't be a cause for division, especially during Holy Week."

The Rev. Brian Jordan, who said many a Sunday Mass for Ground Zero recovery workers in the shadow of the cross, felt "betrayed" by the PA's plan for the cross.

"It can't end up in some dusty hangar out at Kennedy Airport," said Jordan, of St. Francis of Assisi Church in midtown. "To put it out there would be an outrageous defamation of a beautiful symbol."

Jordan, who favors St. Peter's as an interim location, said he was asked hundreds of times after 9/11, "Why did God do this?"

"I told everyone, 'God didn't do this. These were evil acts of men who abused their free will,'" he said. "But when the cross was found - we know it's a T-beam - it was visual evidence that God never abandoned us at Ground Zero."

Edward Malloy, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, said his members helped recover and mount the cross and "they'd be reluctant to move it unless there was a commitment to make it part of the permanent memorial."