Recently, we had occasion to be at Terminal 4 at JFK Airport, and walked by the Airport Chaplain’s office while we were looking at the various airline lounges. And it occurred to us that we know very little about these individuals and the service we provide.
The Internet was rather helpful, producing a Times article written by Howie Adan, who had just finished a three-year stinct as Anglican Chaplain at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. Amsterdam is Europe’s fourth-busiest airport and has three full-time chaplains. Twenty-five percent of the airport’s intercontinental transit passengers are Americans, more than fifty daily flights to London airports alone…more to the UK overall. Thus…a native English speaker was essential.
The airport authority involves the chaplain in any first-line response to crises. As Adan comments:
Recently, again, I was called out to assist an American family transiting through Schiphol on holiday. The father had had a heart attack and died while waiting at the gate – the family had watched as medics tried without success to revive him. I took the family to our offices and helped to guide them through the visits and formalities of police and consulate, rebooking their tickets, making hotel reservations, helping them to telephone loved ones in the US, and escorted them to the mortuary to view the body and make the necessary arrangements for repatriation. For two full days I was busy with this family, being their liaison and advocate with half a dozen other offices. When I finally got them on their onward flight they expressed their thanks for my efforts but I knew that I would likely never see them again.
This scenario is played out many times over in the world’s larger airports. The work of an airport chaplain is a never-ending stream of intense personal encounters followed by silence, the void being filled with hopeful prayer that each individual will continue to find the help and support they need once they have moved on from here. Only twice in my time at Schiphol have those whom I have helped written or returned to let me know how they are doing.
Now, we were dismayed that on average two Dutch citizens a day die while abroad, and how much death is a part of airport and air travel life. We’ve gotten involved with death and illness at the airport, but the idea of the airport as a place of death may hit too close to home, considering accusations of the airport as a place of misery due long delays, stranded passengers, and draconian security measures
Now, for an American perspective, the Catholic News Service has an article on Catholic airport chaplains…For example, Father Michael Zaniolo is the airport chaplain of both Chicago Midway and Chicago O’Hare Airports and has been for six years. Combined, the two airports offer 20 masses a week, and passengers are alerted to them via the airport address systems. However, despite this, their primary attractor are airport employees. Bishop Donald Hayes has been the Catholic chaplain at Dallas/Ft. Worth for 14 years. For more, check out the article. We learned that 31 airport in the US have Catholic chaplains, and the first was established in 1950 at Boston’s Logan Airport, followed by the one at Idlewild(now JFK), a year later.
We also know there are religious services at airports, but have little to no information about how one might get involved in them, if one wishes. For some information on airport chaplains and services they provide, you can review the website of the International Association of Civil Aviation Chaplains. They have a list of chaplain information at a variety of airports. Their lists and links are not necessarily current. You can also consult the airport webpage or informational phone number.
Since we admit a lack of full knowledge on the subject, we, as always, invite comments and information on the subject to share, and conclude that in an airport, a miniature city in itself, spiritual needs often arise, and we are comforted to know that they, like more tangible needs, have an infrastructure through which they can be met.