In an era when bishops lament that Catholics no longer go to confession, Catholic airport chaplains yesterday told stories of not having enough priests to hear the confessions of all the travelers who want to make them.
"That is one of the biggest parts of my ministry, and they are always good confessions," said the Rev. Michael Zaniolo, Catholic chaplain at the Interfaith Chapel in Chicago O'Hare International Airport.
Zaniolo, 44, had been vocations director of the Chicago Archdiocese before applying for the airport chaplaincy in 2001 because he thought it offered some of the best opportunities for ministry he had ever seen.
"There is something about an airport that makes people become reflective. God's grace is operating in significant ways," he said.
"Everyone is happy to see a priest. Even the atheists. We represent everything that God is -- his love, his mercy, his compassion."
About 20 chaplains with the National Association of Catholic Airport Chaplains met at the Sewickley Country Inn yesterday, and will continue through Friday. The first Catholic airport chaplaincy was established in Boston in 1950. Today most work in interfaith chapels that also serve Protestants, Jews and particularly Muslims, who require a place to pray five times daily.
Many of those at the meeting were not priests but deacons and lay persons, neither of whom can hear confessions. Pittsburgh and Chicago are among a handful of airports to have priests in full-time airport ministry.
One participant compared their ministry to the wayside shrines of medieval Europe, "for people who are unconsciously on pilgrimages."
A keynote speaker confessed that when he heard in 1994 that the Diocese of Pittsburgh was dedicating a priest to airport ministry, he questioned the wisdom of the position. It made no sense when parishes were closing due to a priest shortage, and he couldn't see how quality ministry could take in such an atmosphere.
"Everyone runs through an airport as fast as possible," said the Rev. Thomas Acklin, a Benedictine theologian and psychologist at St. Vincent Seminary in Latrobe.
Then, after 9/11, he found himself in an airport security line, hearing the whispered confession of a fellow traveler desperate to make peace with God.
"Any person reaching out in the name of Jesus Christ -- or of any faith -- to support people in these radically insecure times has a very important role," Acklin said. "You minister at the crossroads of the world. ... You, and even the signs advertising your presence and the places of prayer you inhabit, have become incredibly significant beacons of hope for people who may be traveling in the most vulnerable of circumstances."
He urged the priests and deacons to wear clerical garb and walk the concourses.
"We have to be careful not to hide behind closed doors ... but to get out there in the concourses, to get out where the flight may be delayed, to get to the one who may be coming from a funeral or from a fragmented family situation and who may not have seen a friendly face for days."
Acklin, a frequent flier, said that during last year's sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, he was apprehensive about how people would react to him as he waited for flights. To his surprise, passengers were more friendly than ever.
"They seemed to think that I needed to be cheered up. It was, 'Hello Father! Would you please bless this for me? Would you pray for my son who is an alcoholic?'" he said.
During group discussions the chaplains spoke about their work among airline employees. They offered special prayers for yesterday's discussions on the future of Pittsburgh International Airport.
In St. Louis, which was a hub for the now-defunct TWA and now for financially stricken American, "Employees are coming to our chapel in tears, and I'm glad to comfort them and help them," said Deacon George Beinke.
The Rev. Jack Fitzgerald, the Pittsburgh chaplain, warned that the US Airways model of bankruptcy and backing out of contracts was likely to become the national pattern.
During a discussion of the responsibility of Catholic priests to speak to social justice issues involving airlines, Fitzgerald said he had written a letter to David Siegel when he became CEO of US Airways, asking him to affirm the workers and acknowledge that it is they who make the airline work.
He received a respectful response from the vice president for customer service, Fitzgerald said. But more importantly, "When word got around the concourse that I had written this letter, my stock went up 1,000 percent."
The Rev. John Jamnicky, a former Chicago airport chaplain who is now on staff at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, cautioned against taking sides in labor-management disputes. He quoted the late renowned labor priest, the Rev. George Higgins, who told the chaplains group many years ago that their job was to provide pastoral care for everyone connected with the airport, labor and management alike.
Several chaplains complained of problems with airport authorities who did not understand their ministry and impeded their access, especially after 9/11. Some had trouble getting clearance to go to the gates and other security areas.
At the Charlotte airport, where the chapel is outside the secure area, attendance is down 70 percent since 9/11, said Deacon Ben Wenning. Skycaps and security people attend, but passengers worried about long security delays don't take the time. This has been the impetus for a new model of ministry, he said.
"What I have done with our chaplains is make them mobile. The chapel is not going to be the focal point of ministry any more. The focal point is going to be the chaplain in the concourse."