The Archdiocese of Miami is keeping up with modern mobility, holding Mass at Miami International Airport starting next month and releasing an app of its own.
Prayer is on the move in South Florida.
First, the Archdiocese of Miami began streaming catechism through an app.
Now it’s about to hold weekly Mass at the airport.
Religion-to-go is all about accommodating the faithful wherever they are.
And where they often are is the airport. Starting 7 p.m. Aug. 18 and every Saturday after that, the archdiocese will have a Mass on the fourth level of Terminal D at Miami International.
Airport spokesman Greg Chin said it’s a “high traffic area” because of the presence of American Airlines, which he said runs about 70 percent of flights from the airport.
The chapel sits before security checkpoints, so passengers and others can access it before catching a flight or after dropping someone off.
Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski said in an email from the archdiocese’s media coordinator, Juan Di Prado, that most major airports offer such services, including John F. Kennedy in New York, O’Hare in Chicago, and Benito Juárez in Mexico City.
“An airport with its many thousands of employees and hundreds of thousands of passengers is like a large city in itself,” Wenski said.
“A chapel and the ministry that takes place there helps make the airport more of a community — for both employees and passengers alike.”
Deacon Dennis Jordan has been the chaplain of the airport chapel since 1999. He said this project to have Mass at the international hub has been under way since he was assigned the position.
The chapel is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and Jordan said the chapel is especially comforting as a place of rest to people with delayed flights.
He added that a large South American population passes through the chapel because those flights usually leave at night and offer more time for a spiritual break.
With MIA’s more than 18 million international passengers in 2011, many from Latin America, Jordan said Mass should be popular.
“They come to the chapel to get some peace of mind,” Jordan said. “It’s the only place of peace you can go to in a busy airport.”
Jordan said different religious leaders will be conducting the service every week. The inaugural Mass will be headed by Father Roberto Cid, pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Church and general director of Radio Paz.
Radio Paz, 830-AM, also has made it easier for Spanish-speaking Catholics in Miami and around the world to tap into spiritual inspiration wherever they are.
A new mobile app adds new meaning to the radio station’s tagline “Siempre contigo,” in English, “always with you.”
The application can be downloaded for free from Apple’s App Store, and works on Apple and Android platforms for both tablets and smartphones.
Listeners can access a livestream of the station broadcast as well as Spanish-language podcasts such as the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, and the document of Aparecida.
There is also a YouTube tab with videos produced by the archdiocese or that might be of interest to the Catholic community.
With the app, the church is targeting a younger audience.
“We have to go where the people are,” Jordan said.
Other tabs allow listeners to share the programs through social media and to make donations to the station.
Anthony Bonta, director of Campus Ministry at Barry University, said he is excited about both developments for the Catholic community.
“Throughout history we [asked] how do we always transmit those wonderful traditions of truth to a new generation,” Bonta said. “It’s wise to use mediums that can help do that.”
First, the Archdiocese of Miami began streaming catechism through an app.
Now it’s about to hold weekly Mass at the airport.
Religion-to-go is all about accommodating the faithful wherever they are.
And where they often are is the airport. Starting 7 p.m. Aug. 18 and every Saturday after that, the archdiocese will have a Mass on the fourth level of Terminal D at Miami International.
Airport spokesman Greg Chin said it’s a “high traffic area” because of the presence of American Airlines, which he said runs about 70 percent of flights from the airport.
The chapel sits before security checkpoints, so passengers and others can access it before catching a flight or after dropping someone off.
Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski said in an email from the archdiocese’s media coordinator, Juan Di Prado, that most major airports offer such services, including John F. Kennedy in New York, O’Hare in Chicago, and Benito Juárez in Mexico City.
“An airport with its many thousands of employees and hundreds of thousands of passengers is like a large city in itself,” Wenski said.
“A chapel and the ministry that takes place there helps make the airport more of a community — for both employees and passengers alike.”
Deacon Dennis Jordan has been the chaplain of the airport chapel since 1999. He said this project to have Mass at the international hub has been under way since he was assigned the position.
The chapel is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and Jordan said the chapel is especially comforting as a place of rest to people with delayed flights.
He added that a large South American population passes through the chapel because those flights usually leave at night and offer more time for a spiritual break.
With MIA’s more than 18 million international passengers in 2011, many from Latin America, Jordan said Mass should be popular.
“They come to the chapel to get some peace of mind,” Jordan said. “It’s the only place of peace you can go to in a busy airport.”
Jordan said different religious leaders will be conducting the service every week. The inaugural Mass will be headed by Father Roberto Cid, pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Church and general director of Radio Paz.
Radio Paz, 830-AM, also has made it easier for Spanish-speaking Catholics in Miami and around the world to tap into spiritual inspiration wherever they are.
A new mobile app adds new meaning to the radio station’s tagline “Siempre contigo,” in English, “always with you.”
The application can be downloaded for free from Apple’s App Store, and works on Apple and Android platforms for both tablets and smartphones.
Listeners can access a livestream of the station broadcast as well as Spanish-language podcasts such as the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, and the document of Aparecida.
There is also a YouTube tab with videos produced by the archdiocese or that might be of interest to the Catholic community.
With the app, the church is targeting a younger audience.
“We have to go where the people are,” Jordan said.
Other tabs allow listeners to share the programs through social media and to make donations to the station.
Anthony Bonta, director of Campus Ministry at Barry University, said he is excited about both developments for the Catholic community.
“Throughout history we [asked] how do we always transmit those wonderful traditions of truth to a new generation,” Bonta said. “It’s wise to use mediums that can help do that.”