CV NEWS FEED // A Catholic parish in Houston, Texas, has ministered to 36 astronauts and has allowed astronauts to bring the Eucharistic Lord into space.
Associated Press reports that St. Paul the Apostle Parish’s pastor, Rev. Wencil Pavlovsky, helped former astronaut Mark Vande Hei bring Our Lord into outer space. The pastor said that ministering to astronauts is similar to doing so for any other parishioner.
Rev. Pavlovsky added, “What I do find unique and what I truly, truly appreciate is that they have a very different perspective because they get to look back at us the way God does.”
Other Catholic astronauts from around the country have received the Eucharist while in orbit. Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin also brought the Eucharist into space with him, after he landed on the moon.
Another Houston Catholic, former NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, who is a convert, learned about Catholicism through his wife.
Though Hopkins insisted he would never become Catholic, he felt “he was not spiritually ready” when his life insurance told him it did not cover astronauts, AP reports.
Hopkins said, “It’s the idea of being an astronaut and recognizing the risks that we take. It felt like something was missing for me.”
When Hopkins first received the Eucharist, “he was overcome with a clarity and peace that he wanted to take into space,” AP says. His pastor allowed him to bring the Eucharist into orbit, and Hopkins received Our Lord weekly.
“It just set the tone for the day,” he said. “Then, you just go through the step-by-step process of executing the spacewalk but doing it knowing that Christ is with me.”
