Aviation patroness visits Miami

By Marlene Quaroni - Florida Catholic

MIAMI | An image of Our Lady of Loreto is traveling to various airport chapels worldwide. Pope Francis declared that “pilgrims” visiting those chapels can receive a plenary indulgence as part of the celebration of 100 years since Pope Benedict XV declared her the patron saint of pilots, crews, airport workers and air travelers.

“However, Miami International Airport wasn’t one of the airports on the five continents where the statue would be making a symbolic trip by plane,” said Raquelin Gonzalez, a parishioner at St. Louis Church in Pinecrest.

She learned that Father Urbano Monedero, the chaplain of Madrid’s Barajas Airport, who is a friend of Gonzalez and her husband, would be taking the image from Rome, where it’s kept, to Costa Rica.

“I wanted a Miami stop-over to happen,” said Gonzalez.

She said she and Father Jose Alfaro, pastor at Blessed Trinity in Miami Springs and chaplain at Miami International Airport, “knocked on every door, both at MIA and the Archdiocese of Miami, to get the statue. There was a lot of red tape, but somehow we did it.”

Father Giovanni Soccorso, chaplain of the Fiumicino airport in Rome and papal delegate for the jubilee, chose Father Monedero to take the image to airports throughout the Americas. Alitalia, Italy’s flagship carrier, has often accommodated the image, which travels in the airplane’s cabin with the priest.

Father Monedero arrived at MIA on an Alitalia flight from Rome Feb. 17, bringing the image, in a wooden box, with him. He was ushered to an MIA auditorium, since the airport’s chapel is too small for the 100 or so worshippers — from nearby Blessed Trinity, airport workers and others — who attended the Mass honoring the image’s arrival.

Father Monedero thanked the archdiocese for allowing the image to come to Miami.

“Pope Francis wants Our Lady to be an evangelizer during this centenary year,” said Father Monedero who, as a child, wanted to be either a pilot or a priest. “Mary is our co-redemptrix, she takes us to the risen Christ.”

Father Monedero, Father Alfaro, Father Elkin Sierra, a pilot and parochial vicar at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Doral, as well as Father Lesly Jean, a chaplain at Jackson Memorial Hospital, concelebrated the Mass with the image. Made of Lebanese cedar, it was placed on a pedestal next to the altar. The image is one of three such traveling images; two others only travel throughout Italy.

“I saw Our Lady of Loreto coming to Miami as a sign that she really wanted to come here,” said Father Alfaro.

The next evening, Feb. 18, another Mass was celebrated at Blessed Trinity, an area that is home to many aviation employees.

Pope Francis designated the Lauretan Jubilee to begin Dec. 8, 2019 — the feast of the Immaculate Conception — and end Dec. 10, 2020 — the feast of Our Lady of Loreto.

During the year, Catholics are called to “fly high” toward God and toward holiness, letting Jesus be their “pilot,” said Archbishop Fabio Dal Cin of Loreto, Italy.

Lucy Diaz, a Blessed Trinity parishioner, came to the Mass with her daughter and grandchildren. She wore a Virgin Mary medal around her neck that had been passed down from her great grandmother.

“I went to the shrine at Our Lady of Loreto last year with 34 other Blessed Trinity parishioners,” she said. “I love the Virgin Mary. Loreto was the first sanctuary for her.”

The Basilica of the Holy House in Loreto, Italy, refers to the house where Mary is believed to have lived in Nazareth, and where the Annunciation took place. An eight-foot image of Our Lady of Loreto, a black Madonna, graces the shrine.

Legend has it that the small house where Mary was born and raised, made of three stone walls, was scooped up and flown by angels to what is now Croatia, and three years later, in 1294, to Italy, to preserve it from invading Muslims. However, custodians have said that the house was removed from the Holy Land and carried by ship to Italy by a noble Italian family named Angeli, the Italian word for angels. Because of that association with flying angels, Our Lady of Loreto became the patroness of aviation.

The Church has granted a plenary indulgence to those who attend Mass throughout the jubilee year at the chapel in Miami’s airport — North Terminal D, level 1, between international arrivals and baggage carousel 22. The vigil Mass for Sunday is celebrated at the airport at 7 p.m. Saturdays.

To obtain the indulgence, the faithful also must fulfill the following requirements:

• Be in the state of grace.
• Have the interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, even venial sin.
• Have sacramentally confessed their sins (20 days before or after having received Communion for this indulgence).
• Receive the Holy Eucharist.
• Pray for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff.
• Pray for the spread of our faith before a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary concluding with an Our Father, the Creed, and a Hail Mary (or praying the Litany of Our Lady of Loreto).