Archbishop Gregory Hartmayer of Atlanta dedicated and blessed his archdiocese’s newest chapel while on his way to catch a flight Monday.
Airline workers and travelers flying through the busiest airport in the world can now spend time in the real presence of Christ thanks to the efforts of the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport’s chaplains and the cooperation of the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
Located in the international terminal, the eucharistic chapel will be a permanent fixture at the airport and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
After receiving approval from the archbishop, the tabernacle was installed in November of last year. But because only travelers and airline workers can get past security to access the chapel, the archbishop was not able to officially bless it until this Monday, shortly before his flight departed.
The chapel was sorely needed and perfectly located given the sheer number of people arriving from all over the world to make connecting flights, chaplain Father Kevin Peek told CNA.
The Atlanta airport sees an average of nearly 300,000 passengers flying through daily, according to Business Insider.
“There’s about 64,000 employees at the airport at any given time,” Peek told CNA. “That’s like a small town or city….”
Because it is an interfaith chapel, Walker explained, the airport chaplaincy staff had to get creative in designing the space.
“The space is designed for shared sacred use,” Walker told CNA, “so we don’t want any one thing in there that overpowers the faith groups that are using it.”
Full story on Catholic News Agency.
The writer from Catholic News Agency needs to capitalize the first letter in the words “Real Presence” and “Tabernacle.”
The word “Eucharist” also should be capitalized. Words referring to Christ — “Eucharist,” “Real Presence,” “Blessed Sacrament,” “Holy Communion,” (etc.) and the sacred place where He resides in a church– the “Tabernacle”– should all have their first letters capitalized. EWTN should be notified about this problem, and it should be corrected.
This is good news. Mass and Communion services in a major international airport is a very good thing. I hope many traveling Catholics attend (and that maybe even others would observe and start asking themselves soul-searching questions).
Years ago I was flying to Belfast, Northern Ireland, with a stop in La Guardia, I believe, though memory does falter at times. What I will not forget was a small interfaith chapel that had the Blessed Sacrament reserved behind a curtain. I had a several hour wait for the Belfast connection and found prayer to be just what the doctor ordered. To my left was a Muslim man on his prayer rug, facing Mecca, I can only assume. We never spoke, but I would have thought in that atmosphere of prayer that the conversation would have been very interesting and maybe even congenial. Well, we wil never know. But I am so happy to read of this chapel in Atlanta.