Airport chaplains comfort stressed-out travelers

Published: 2004-09-20

SEA TAC, Wash. (CNS) -- Their "flock" consists of transient and permanent populations numbering in the thousands. Their places of worship and meditation are sometimes housed in the most curious of locations: deep beneath the control tower at London's Heathrow Airport, adjacent to the "Lost & Found" window at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The airport chaplain is a caring face to travelers and employees, a neutral ear to those looking to vent, the person to whom one turns for meaning and solace in the aftermath of an air disaster. In their first Seattle-area gathering, 87 chaplains from 17 countries and of various denominations and faiths descended on the Sea Tac Holiday Inn in early September for the annual conference of the International Association of Civilian Aviation Chaplains, a nondenominational organization founded by a Belgian chaplain in 1960. Joining them for the five-day meeting was Vatican representative Msgr. Anthony Chirayath of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Refugees.

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