"The Church has always accompanied people of the sea," Bishop Frank Schuster, auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Seattle, told EWTN News ahead of his Washington, D.C., visit for the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance for Mariners and People of the Sea on May 22.
"We had a couple of seafarers of our own among the apostles — Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen," said Schuster, who serves as the bishop promoter of Stella Maris in the U.S.
Stella Maris, first known as the Apostleship of the Sea, is the Church's official ministry for seafarers and mariners. Formal Catholic port ministry began in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1920 but was not officially recognized by the Vatican until 1922, when Pope Pius XI granted his approval. The ministry was renamed "Stella Maris" on its 100th anniversary in 2020, a nod to St. John Paul II's 1997 motu proprio Stella Maris.
While the main role of port chaplains with Stella Maris is to celebrate Mass and the sacraments aboard ships, their work includes providing counsel and aid to sailors.
"One of the reasons why this ministry is so vitally important is — if you do a quick search of the United Nations, you'll find this number — it's fascinating that 80% of all tradable goods have, in some fashion, had to at some point travel by ship," Schuster said.
"They're performing a service," he said, "so when they arrive to our ports, we come on board delivering gifts and different items that they might find helpful such as toothbrushes, bars of soap, shaving cream, and razors."
'A ministry of accompaniment'
"It's a ministry of accompaniment," Schuster said, explaining that the ministry of port chaplains often includes walking with seafarers struggling with mental health or trauma from their time on board a ship.
"Some of these seafarers often have trauma in their past," Schuster said. "I've talked to several seafarers who have been on the Hormuz route — if you're a sailor on one of these ships and you're watching missiles fly over you, you are constantly worried about being attacked."
"And so, we can also just be a good ear and listen," he said. "But also, if we see signs of real depression, we can be helpful there in terms of referrals to make sure that these seafarers get the help that they need."
Stella Maris also often assists crews on abandoned ships, according to Schuster.
"There may be a ship out there where the company abandoned the seafarers, so they're no longer getting paid and they're just kind of sitting out there on a boat because the country won't let them leave the boat abandoned," he explained, citing the crew of the Dali cargo ship that crashed into Baltimore's Key Bridge in March 2024.
A port chaplain with Stella Maris in Baltimore regularly checks in on several members of the Dali crew who have remained in the city amid the ongoing investigation of the incident, the bishop noted.
Schuster said his favorite part about his role as bishop promoter of Stella Maris is "just getting on board the ships and being able to do ministry."
"Before I was a bishop, I was a pastor of a parish, and that meant daily accompaniment of people from a variety of different backgrounds and a variety of different needs, and I missed that one-on-one ministry," he said.
"So when I get on board a ship and minister to a crew, being able to celebrate Mass, sit down to eat with them and talk about life, it feels like I'm a pastor again. And it feels good."
