VATICAN CITY — From pilots and passengers to refugees and
fast-food workers, the people airport chaplains meet each day all deserve a
kind word and an invitation to a relationship with God, Pope Francis said.
"Technological advances, a frenzied pace of activity and a
constant flow of people all tend to create an atmosphere of anonymity and
indifference in airports," Pope Francis told more than 90 airport
chaplains — priests, deacons, religious and laypeople — meeting in Rome June
10-13.
Among those in attendance was Father Philip S. Majka, a retired priest of the Diocese of Arlington who serves as the Catholic chaplain at Dulles International Airport.
Pope Francis told the chaplains the story of a businessman he
knew who said he had gone into an airport chapel looking for an outlet to
charge his computer.
The lay chaplain asked if he needed anything and when the
businessman explained why he was there, the chaplain told him he was welcome
since the electricity, "like the energy of God," was there for
everyone.
As the two kept talking, "that man felt something change in
his heart," the pope said. He bought a Bible and still today, "years
later," continues to read it "to encounter again that Jesus he met in
the airport."
Each day in airports around the world, he said, "millions of
people of different nationalities, cultures, religions and languages daily
cross paths with one another. Each has his or her own story, known only to God,
with its joys and sorrows, its hopes and troubles."
"In this setting," he told the chaplains, "you are
called to bring the message and presence of Christ, who alone knows what lies
hidden in the heart of each person, and to bring to everyone, whether Christian
or not, the good news of God's tender love, hope and peace."
Pope Francis said it was interesting how airports can be "a
kind of 'free zone'" where people "can feel at ease in opening their
hearts, entering into a process of healing and making their way back to the
house of the Father, which for various reasons they may have long since left
behind."
Special concern must be shown for "the migrants and refugees
who arrive at major airports in the hope of seeking asylum or finding shelter,
or who are stopped in transit."
While civil authorities have direct responsibility for those
people, Pope Francis said it is part of the chaplain's pastoral responsibility
"to ensure that their human dignity is always protected and their rights
safeguarded, in respect for the dignity and beliefs of each."