Ministry for sailors eyes a comeback
LA’s ministry for sailors eyes a comeback amid pandemic, port back-up
For years, maritime crews streaming into the Stella Maris Crew Center and Chapel were greeted by a sign depicting the Virgin Mary, proclaiming “Mass — Quiet Time — Relax/Free: Wi-Fi, Coffee and Cookies.”
Now the sign beckoning a safe harbor for thousands of global sailors and hospitality workers sits behind locked doors at the Port of Los Angeles World Cruise Center in San Pedro.
Its overstuffed couches sit empty. Its care packages of shipboard necessities, from warm socks to shampoo to rosary beads, sit untended. Its coffee machine, cold, despite two Holland America and Princess ships tethered recently to a dock outside its capacious windows.