Sometimes God asks us to leave our comfort zone, our ‘security,’ to go find Him, and it’s always worth it.
As a priest, Father Victor Perez celebrates Mass every day, but after a long overnight flight from Houston to Rome, and with only a few hours to spare before the next flight to Turin, he thought he had no option at the airport on Sept. 3.
Until he realized, “It’s Rome — there’s got to be a chapel!”
As pastor of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Houston, Father Perez was the spiritual leader of a sacred-art pilgrimage in Italy, leading a group of 21 people alongside parishioner Marissa Pozzi. After arriving at the busy airport of Roma-Fiumicino, passing through immigration and security checkpoints, the parish group began dispersing to various parts, looking for food or some rest. But Father Perez was on a mission: to provide the sacraments for his flock.
The priest told the Register he “went on a search because we were all just sitting around having coffee, and it was like a light from the Holy Spirit to make myself useful: ‘I’m going to find Mass for my group,’ so I started asking around.” He had celebrated Mass at the Madrid airport once, so he knew Rome likely had a chapel.
After asking a janitor, Father Perez was able to find out where the chapel was and how to open the sacristy. “When I saw it, I was like, ‘Jackpot.’” There, they had everything a priest would need to celebrate Mass, even an English missal.
But there was a problem: The chapel was outside the security checkpoint, and given the flight was in a few hours and Rome is such a big and busy airport, the priest feared the pilgrims wouldn’t want to leave, knowing they could face long lines or even run into issues on the way back, but he was happy with the turnaround.
“I was so surprised that everybody in my group went; you know, these older people, they didn’t mind going. Even one of the guys had gotten questioned in security, and he was willing to go back and come to Mass, and so it just made me so proud to start our pilgrimage off that good way with a Mass at the airport in Rome.”
He emphasized, “It was not very convenient to have to go outside of security, but it was a blessing that we had that long layover and we could do that and just pray for everybody in the airport. You know, everybody’s just going to their destination very rushed, and we could just pause and worship God in this chapel.”
The priest seized the opportunity to “play with the words” and tied the situation the group had just experienced to a deeper meaning, stating that sometimes God asks us to leave our comfort zone, our “security,” to go find Him, and it’s always worth it.
Father Perez also mentioned an interesting detail: The chasuble he used for the Mass was a historical one, as he recognized the pattern referenced a former pope.
“The papal shield was imprinted on the silk. Pope John XXIII was elected in 1958 and died in 1963, so this chasuble was from the late ’50s, early ’60s. I wore it, and it’s just so cool to be in Rome wearing this chasuble that’s very old, that had been there since that Pope’s time,” the priest recalled.
The airport chapel in Terminal 1 belongs to the parish of St. Mary of the Angels, located in a suburb outside Rome, and is dedicated to Our Lady of Loreto, who is considered the patron of aviators and air travelers due to the miraculous tradition that the house where the Holy Family lived was transported by angels from the Holy Land to Loreto, Italy.
More than celebrating Mass in an unusual place like the airport, Father Perez shared the profound experience he and his fellow travelers had with encountering Jesus in the Eucharist.
“I saw tears in people’s eyes. The fact that we got to receive Communion after a long day of traveling. … Here, we get to receive Jesus, our Good Shepherd, so He really takes care of us. It was just moving to me.”
Asked if the airport was the most unexpected site he ever celebrated Holy Mass, Father Perez curiously said, “No.”
“The most interesting place I’ve ever done Mass would have been on the train coming from Madrid to Santiago,” he said, explaining that he led a pilgrimage of young adults from his parish along the Camino in 2024.
Noticing the car where the bar was located on the train was barely filled, Father Perez felt inspired and gathered the courage to ask the bartenders if he could celebrate Mass there, and they said, “Yes.”
“It just showed me that Spain is still very Catholic in its DNA; even if people don’t go to church, the people are still friendly towards the Church. That was an amazing place to do Mass, going 60 miles per hour through the Spanish countryside and then having Spaniards join us.”
“But doing Mass in Rome in the airport was definitely special,” he added.
In what ways is the Lord calling you to leave “security” to find Him?
