As ships and their crews move from one diocese to another, Catholic port chaplains around the world do their best to minister to people of the sea. Pope John Paul II’s new apostolic letter encourages them in their maritime ministry. By Mary Jo Dangel

AOS chaplains encounter a variety of problems. Karen Lai describes one incident in Catholic Maritime News, an AOS publication: A seaman was being refused medical treatment, hadn’t been paid for several months and was under constant verbal abuse. When Karen arrived at the ship as an advocate for the seaman, she was immediately recognized as a Catholic chaplain by her identification badge, which includes her name and the AOS Apostolatus Maris logo that is known at ports all over the world. She had to pull herself “up to the bottom step of the gangway that was hanging across the water” because the officers refused to lower the partially raised gangway.

When she approached the captain, Karen says, “I was dripping wet because the top deck was draining buckets of water over the gangway. I was cold...and not real happy.” Karen used the publicspeaking skills she developed in college and won her case. The seafarer went home “with his proper pay and his dignity.” When Karen left the ship, some of the officers watched her jump to the dock—they still hadn’t lowered the gangway. Although this incident had a happy ending, Karen says the most difficult part of this ministry is when you know “there is absolutely nothing you can do. It just rips your heart out.”

Karen began volunteering for Apostleship of the Sea in 1985 because of a notice she read in her Detroit church bulletin. At that time her three children were preschoolers and she “kept thinking that there’s got to be something more than just going to church on Sundays.” Her volunteer job evolved into a paid position as port chaplain ministering to seafarers working on the Great Lakes. (Not all AOS chaplains and staff are paid—many work on a volunteer basis.)

But shipping reductions on the Great Lakes led to the elimination of Karen’s position. She had either to find a new career in Detroit or to move her family to a location where there was an opening for a port chaplain. Her husband, Steve, said he could find a position in a restaurant in any city. He urged his wife to use her “specialized skills” in Galveston, where AOS had a vacancy for a position paid by the Diocese of Galveston-Houston. The family moved to Galveston in 1992 so Karen could continue her ministry. “God had it all worked out,” says Father Rivers Patout, director of maritime ministry in the Diocese of Galveston-Houston.

Karen says her family has been very supportive. This proud mom justifiably brags about her teens pitching in on household chores during an emergency that turned her day off into a 15-hour ordeal aboard a ship where the crew finally went on strike. Her kids also entertain seafarers and have become “like proxy children” to people they’ve met from all over the world.

“My favorite place to be, other than with my family at home, is aboard a ship interacting with the crew, ” she says. “My second favorite part of the job is the correspondence I have with the seafarers.” She’s been writing to some people for 10 years. Many are people she’s met only once. Through these letters, she’s been with these families through deaths and happy events. She’s godmother of two of their children and plans to visit families of some pen pals when she goes to the Philippines in October 1997 for AOS’s 20th world congress. Karen was the only woman invited to address the 19th world congress in 1992.

The number-one concern of seafarers is their families. They can’t wait to call home when they arrive in a port.

Language has not been a barrier to this articulate woman who says she only speaks “American.” (“I can’t even call it English,” she laughs.) When a seaman from El Salvador began sobbing in a telephone booth, Karen found out through a translator that the man’s wife had died. At the last port he had discovered that she was ill but he was unable to receive permission to return home. Karen went alone with this widower to the chapel: “I prayed in English, but he understood and was telling me in Spanish all about his wife. And I understood....He knew that I understood his pain.”

But the “miracle” that stands out in her mind involves a Russian crew that returned to the Galveston port on a regular basis. Some of the seamen began asking Karen about God and Jesus.

One day two of the Russians asked if they could accompany the Lai family to church for Sunday Mass. The seamen’s experience at Mass was like that of aliens from another planet. Karen says the Russians watched everything—the people praying the rosary and receiving Communion, the servers, the priest. After Mass, the seamen asked about the stained-glass windows, the statues of the saints, the tabernacle. “They were in wonder regarding how so many people came to worship this God they never knew.”

At a later date, Karen went to Russia and stayed in a two-room flat with the family of one of these seamen. “On a wall in a glass case was the front of the bulletin from our church from Easter Sunday, with the risen Christ on the cover,” she recalls. When Karen returned home, she reported this incident to her parish so the people would realize how much their worshiping community had touched not only a visitor from a foreign land but also his whole family.

Karen says she’s blessed to have a trusting and supportive husband like Steve as her partner: “How many husbands would let their wives go on ships where there are men who haven’t seen a woman in months?” She also has a great deal of confidence and self-respect, qualities she believes are a must for women chaplains.

Another must is appropriate attire. “We have to dress and act properly or we’ve set ourselves up,” says Karen about women in this ministry. She wears a plain shirt with a crucifix that’s very visible, her AOS identification badge, casual slacks and athletic shoes. “Before women started boarding ships as chaplains, the only women these guys saw coming up the gangway were prostitutes.” (Prostitutes still board ships.) Karen and other women chaplains at the conference say they’ve never experienced sexual harassment on the job.

Deacon Dale, 60, is the only Franciscan port chaplain in the United States. The Diocese of Jacksonville pays his salary and furnishes the van he uses, which has the AOS logo painted on the side. (Funding varies in each diocese.)

(Left to right) Deacon Robert Balderas, Father River Patout and Sister Pamela VanGiessen visit the dock between classes at Houston’s Port Chaplaincy School in February.

Like many Catholic port chaplains, Dale works at an ecumenical center—a Baptist chaplain manages Jacksonville’s Baptist Seafarers’ Center. Dale’s responsibilities include ship visits and transporting seafarers to the “center, shopping, whatever they need to do.” AOS chaplains report that seafarers often shop at resale shops and discount stores. One group bought used bikes they rode back to the ship and could continue using at other ports.

The number-one concern of seafarers, says Dale, is their families. They can’t wait to call home when they arrive in a port.

Modern seafarers don’t bear much resemblance to the characters found in Moby Dick and Treasure Island, although piracy still exists on the high seas. Many seamen today are married and devoted to their families. Able-bodied (AB) women also work on ships—in the kitchen, on deck and as officers. (AB’s are qualified to perform various duties at sea.)

Most of the seafarers Dale Wamstad meets are from foreign countries and work on commercial ships. When Dale boards a ship, he tells the crew, “I’m here to do whatever I can for you.” If he encounters a problem, he often attempts to resolve it by calling an attorney or the International Transport Workers’ Federation. (There are international laws, but they aren ’t easy to enforce when ships keep moving and many abuses are unreported.) Dale can call the U.S. Coast Guard if there’s a health problem such as bad water or food, or if the vessel is not seaworthy. “We make a very little dent in bringing about a just situation but once in a while we catch them.”

It’s no surprise that this convert to Catholicism is an advocate. Raised a Lutheran, Dale became interested in social-justice issues in college. While working with Dorothy Day at the Catholic Worker, Dale was influenced by a Franciscan brother he met. “Franciscans fit my image of an alternative life-style,” he explains.

Later, during a break at the conference, their plight is reiterated by Sue Romero, a seaman’s spouse who has been coordinating volunteers at the port of Detroit since 1988. (Many individuals and groups provide volunteer services to assist AOS.) Sue pours out her story like a volcano that’s overdue to explode. Her husband, Tom, is an AB on the Great Lakes whose average tour of duty lasts about a month. Tom, a native of the Philippines who is trying to become a U.S. citizen, was a seafarer when Sue met him. After they were married he tried working on land but he wasn’t happy.

Tom and Sue have two young daughters who keep track of where their daddy is working each day by using a map of the Great Lakes that Sue hangs on the refrigerator. She made a small needlepoint magnet of a house to show where they live and another of a freighter that moves to show where Tom works. If he’s docking a few hours away, Sue and the girls often drive there to spend a few hours with him.

This mom tries to help her preschoolers adjust to their father not being home at Christmas and other special occasions, and to tuck them in at night. “Before they go to bed I say, ‘There’s the moon,’” explains Sue. “We blow a kiss to the moon and the moon blows a kiss to Daddy for us. That sticks with them.” Sue doesn’t want Tom to get in the habit of bringing expensive gifts to the girls whenever he returns, but he does bring them postcards, which they love. “He found a postcard that shows a freighter with the moon—that’s their favorite postcard.”

Sue has had some adjustments to make, too, such as Tom not being there when she had emergency surgery. When he is home, she needs him to spend time being both a daddy and a husband. Her parents sometimes keep the two girls overnight so Sue and Tom can go to a movie or out to dinner, or just have some time alone to talk while sitting on a park bench. “It’s hard on me,” she admits. “Mom needs time, too!”

She’s constantly reminded of one seaman’s spouse who has had nervous breakdowns. This reinforces Sue’s belief that families of seafarers in the same area need to form support groups. She hopes to begin a group through notices in employee newsletters of shipping companies that operate on the Great Lakes.

The Houston port chaplain says, “To my knowledge, our center was the first in the world that was ecumenical.” This ecumenical spirit continues today: The North American Maritime Ministry Conference is an ecumenical gathering taking place in Houston May 17-21. And the Port Chaplaincy School is an ecumenical two-week program held there each February. It’s the only program of its type in the United States and the model for programs being developed in other countries, says Father Patout.

One student who attended chaplaincy classes in Houston is Diane Bentley. She needs to complete some additional requirements before she is certified as a chaplain. This divorced mother of three became involved in Apostleship of the Sea after she quit a stressful management position in a warehouse located on the port of Seattle. Her parish priest, Father Tony Haycock, told her there was an opening for an administrator at a seafarer center in Seattle. Now she works there with Father Haycock and a Lutheran chaplain.

“It was helpful for me to go to the Houston chaplaincy school and see that I wasn’t the only one frustrated with things,” she says. “I learned ways to make the center available to seafarers” such as adding more phone lines for seafarers to call their families.

The Seattle center, like many others, relies heavily on fund-raising for financial support. “We get a lot of support from unions and the community,” explains Diane.

Father Tony Haycock, a port chaplain in Seattle, visits seafarer Raul Garcia in the hospital.

Not Just ‘Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay’

Concern for People

One person repeatedly praised by his AOS peers is Msgr. James Dillenburg, 57, of Green Bay, Wisconsin. He began working with seafarers in Green Bay in the late 1960’s and now volunteers at that port one day a week, between his duties as a parish priest at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. He’s also been national director of AOS and recently spent over five years in the Vatican working for international AOS concerns.

For more information, contact Apostleship of the Sea’s national office, 3211 Fourth Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20017 or call 202-541-3226. For information about the sculpture on page 28, call Koh-Varilla Guild, 773-327-8201.