Mass Celebrating Mothers Hails Burnt Statue of Mary

In honor of Mother’s Day, children opened Sunday Mass in the chapel at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station by laying flowers at the base of a charred wooden statue of Mother Mary, then distributed the flowers to their own mothers as services concluded.

It was the third consecutive year that Mother’s Day Mass centered on the scorched Madonna statue, which had incredibly survived the fiery crash of a small privately owned airplane that struck power lines and plunged into the base’s chapel on April 27, 1985.

The crash, which took the lives of the plane’s civilian pilot and his passenger, demolished the chapel, which was empty at the time.

The only artifact salvaged from the inferno was the wooden Madonna, badly burned but intact.

The Madonna, scarred from the flames but protected by a layer of lacquer, can be seen in the chapel during most Catholic services, according to Mary Lou Miller, director of religious education at the base.

But the Madonna has become the centerpiece of services to simultaneously honor parishioners’ mothers and the mother of Jesus.

“It’s great,” said Julie Kennedy, 13-year-old daughter of Barbara and Lt. Col. Robert Kennedy. “The kids get to know about the Blessed Mother and get to honor her on this date.

“And it shows appreciation to my mother for all the things she’s done.”

“It isn’t easy being a parent,” Julie pointed out. “It’s hard.”

Conducting the services was Father Chris Heath, visiting priest from Tustin’s St. Cecilia Catholic Church.

In 2,000 years, Father Heath noted, many religious pictures and statues have miraculously survived despite plundering barbarians and other catastrophes.

The El Toro Madonna has taken on a regional significance by bringing an immediacy to such stories for the local parishioners, he said.

“This, I think, has a lot of religious importance to people,” Father Heath said.

Parishioner Cindy Fox agreed.

“To look at the statue is kind of eerie,” said Fox, who is married to Marine Corps Maj. Ray Fox.

Cindy Fox said she got involved with the Mother’s Day tradition at the chapel by making the flowered wreaths for the Madonna’s head.

When she and her husband returned to the El Toro base after being stationed out of the country for a year, she was delighted to find that the custom of bringing flowers for the Madonna had continued.

About 40 boys and girls participated Sunday, each carrying flowers they had brought from home to place on the base of the statue as services began.

Then, at the conclusion of the Mass, Father Heath invited the children to return to the statue near the altar “in honor of all of those of you who are mothers.”

Queues of daintily dressed girls and fresh-faced boys formed to pick out flowers at the feet of the statue, then returned the pews to give the gifts to their mothers.

“This is kind of a neat way to honor our mothers on Mother’s Day,” said Cindy Fox, whose daughter was among the children bearing flowers Sunday.