Chaplains Try to Ease Fear, Trauma of Flying

The Rev. Heinz Kettke often begs diplomats to help Iranians, Romanians, Turks and other refugees at the airport in Vienna to board a plane for the United States or Canada.

Kettke invites many of those stranded refugees into his home, where he feeds them, prays with them and advises them on how to escape deportation.

It’s all part of his job as an airport chaplain.

“I feel responsible for the people who meet me. I don’t ask about their religion,” Kettke said Tuesday at the annual conference of the International Assn. of Civil Aviation Chaplains.

About 100 chaplains from 13 countries gathered recently at a suburban church retreat to discuss the airport ministry--from the trauma of plane crashes to the routine duties of calming scared travelers and hearing preflight confession.

Kettke, a Lutheran pastor, says plane crashes are easier to rationalize than the flood of refugees European airport chaplains see. He asked his colleagues from around the world to explore ways to ease what he called the “refugee crisis.”

“This is like in 1938 when the Jews had to flee Europe,” Kettke said, showing pictures of police wrestling with people he identified as Turks being deported from Vienna.

Kettke also pleaded with his fellow airport chaplains to make physical help a priority in their work, noting: “The refugee needs a glass of water, not just prayer.”

Physical assistance already is a primary task for the hundreds of chaplains working at the world’s major airports, said the Rev. Charles Shirley, director of the Interfaith Chapel at Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport. They give directions and hail taxis.

Some hear confessions.

“I was surprised at the large number of confessions in the airport,” said the Rev. Herman Boon, a Catholic priest who works at the Brussels airport. “Some are wives, some are children. Some are just frightened of flying or of where they’re going.”

Among an airport chaplain’s most difficult duties is delivering bad news.

The Rev. Philip Philips of Toronto remembered a police officer calling him to the airport late one night to tell a passenger that his wife and two close friends had died on another flight.

“Then there was an Air India crash near Ireland where all the passengers were from Toronto. We had hundreds of relatives coming into the airport,” Philips said. “I’m still working out that one. In 24 hours’ time you can have some very pleasurable experiences and others that are heartbreaking.”

But mostly, airport chaplains quietly assist hundreds of passengers each day, including those frightened of flying or traveling because of family emergencies.

“Airports aren’t friendly places,” said the Rev. Raymond Moore, a volunteer chaplain at the Hartsfield airport. “It’s nice to have somebody to touch with at the airport.”