CV NEWS FEED // The world’s busiest international airport, located in Atlanta, Georgia, served more than 100 million passengers in 2023. But as travelers come and go, catching their connecting flights headed all over the world, there is one Guest Who never leaves the airport. He abides in a tabernacle in Concourse F.
At the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, travelers with sufficient time before their next flight can stop by the Interfaith Chapel and spend time with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. And if they are there at 4:30 p.m. EST on Saturdays, Sundays, or holy days of obligation, they can even go to Mass and Confession. There are also Catholic Communion services on weekdays.
Masses have been celebrated at the airport since 2015, and the tabernacle was installed in 2023. The process leading up to the installation took a significant amount of effort and planning to ensure the tabernacle remains safe, secure, and accessible for prayer.
For airport chaplain Father Kevin Peek, whose late father was an airline pilot, it was a task worth the many drafts required.
“When I started working at the airport, [I learned] that at any given moment, there are 64,000 people working at the airport,” Fr. Peek told CatholicVote in a March 28 interview. “You basically have a small town,” and being able to minister to them is important.
Many times, they have to work on Holy Days of Obligation, Sundays, and Saturdays, which makes it difficult to get to Mass.
The chapel helps provide on-site access to the sacraments and a place for prayerful recollection.
Fr. Peek also noted how he has been able to help provide employees with counseling and spiritual support outside of Mass.
“Tragedies and crises don’t stop when we’re at work,” he said. “There’s been many times when I have ministered to air crew or other staff members who have just been notified of the loss of a loved one or good friend.”
He praised God especially for how He has provided healing and spiritual support in the little chapel. For instance, the priest was able to help someone who was both suicidal and struggling with addiction. He has also counseled airport employees experiencing family and marriage issues.
“It is amazing how God has used that space and His presence there to reach so many people,” Fr. Peek said.
Having tabernacles and celebrating Mass at airports is not a new concept, but it does require permission from the local bishop or archbishop, according to Fr. Peek.
In 2021, before Fr. Peek became the airport chaplain, Archbishop Gregory John Hartmayer granted permission in a letter for a tabernacle to be installed in the airport. But after the initial greenlight, drafting a suitable plan came to a standstill as the priest who used to be the airport chaplain had to renew his visa, and that process took an unexpectedly long time.
In fact, it wasn’t until Fr. Peek became the airport chaplain and discovered the letter of permission from the archbishop that the plans continued.
He worked with the Airport Chaplaincy, the board of the chapel, the TSA, the Atlanta Airlines Terminal Company, and the city council, which owns the airport, to settle on a design that would meet everyone’s standards.
“It ended up taking eight different designs before we finally got one approved,” Fr. Peek said.
Because it is an interfaith chapel, the planning group needed to figure out how the tabernacle could be accessible but also allow space for the worship practices of people of other faith traditions.
One suggestion was to put the tabernacle on wheels so it could be moved when needed, Fr. Peek said.
“I was like no, no, you’re not putting this on wheels, because I don’t want to come in one day and find that Jesus has been moved to a whole other terminal,” he recalled.
The solution that ended up being approved came to Fr. Peek while he was praying.
There is a small room in the corner of the chapel that serves as a sacristy and counseling room that had two frosted windows on it. The frosting was removed, and the tabernacle was securely situated behind the window, in a room that could lock but still allow adorers to see it. A sign was put up stating that the Blessed Sacrament is present, and a kneeler was placed in front of the window. Finally, they added a curtain in front of the window in case groups attending other religious services wanted to close it for their service.
Beside the tabernacle, there is also a sanctuary light, which signifies that Our Lord is present in the tabernacle, and there is a small statue of Our Lady of Loreto, patroness of all those traveling by air. Depending on the liturgical season, sometimes Fr. Peek puts a different statue there, such as a bust of the suffering Christ for Holy Week.
There is also a small plaque in the sacristy about Fr. Peek’s father, Joseph, who flew for Eastern Airlines out of Atlanta for more than 20 years. The plaque details how he was a “kind of missionary and an evangelist in the airplane to other crew members,” Fr. Peek said. He described his father, who passed away several years ago, as a Catholic who possessed great faith and was dedicated to the Eucharist.
When pilots and flight attendants come by the chapel, Fr. Peek shows them the plaque. He said he has also kept in touch with several people who flew with his father and remember the conversations they had with him about Jesus in the Eucharist.
Personally, bringing the tabernacle and everything else together in the chapel was a powerful reminder of the faith and life that his father had given to him, Fr. Peek said.
“It was all done, really, as kind of a tribute to him.”
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