Our Lady of the Skies Chapel at John F. Kennedy International Airport is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

chapel located at

John F. Kennedy International Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the Avia ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, United States.

Description

The chapel was founded in 1955 by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

veteran Bob O’Brien, who promised the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

the creation of a shrine if he could safely return home. The original chapel was dismantled to make room for a terminal expansion for

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...

. The current chapel was rebuilt at a cost of $1 million and contains a 16-foot statue of the Virgin Mary in addition to a white marble altar and stained windows. The rebuilt chapel is estimated to service thousands of people daily and is a popular wedding destination. The chapel is one of the few places of worship in an airport designed for a specific faith. Most other airports in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

that have chapels or places of worship are interfaith.

Location

Our Lady of the Skies Chapel at John F. Kennedy International Airport is incorporated into the second floor of Terminal 4, near the flight arrivals board.

Legal issues

In 1979, Deyan Brashich, a patron of the airport, sued the airport's operator

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorize ...

because of the existence of the chapel. He argued that the existence of the chapel violated his

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

right to freedom of religion. The

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York State. Two of these are in New York City: New ...

ultimately ruled in favor of the Port Authority, noting that the chapel only accommodated religious individuals and that it did not threaten Brashich's right to worship freely. During the case of ''Hawley v. the City of Cleveland'', the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals referenced the precedent set by ''Brashich v. Port Authority of New York'' when they ruled that a chapel located in a

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

airport was not in violation of the

Establishment Clause In United States law, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, together with that Amendment's Free Exercise Clause, form the constitutional right of freedom of religion. The relevant constitutional text ...

of the First Amendment.Hawley v. City of Cleveland
24 F.3d 814 (6th Cir. 1994).

References

{{JFK Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport Christian architecture Airport chapels 1955 establishments in New York City