The Church teaches that a pastor must seek out those who suffer.
Father Frederick Edlefsen did just that on Jan. 29, 2025. That night, the first major commercial jet crash in the U.S. in more than 16 years occurred over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. An American Airlines plane collided midair with a military helicopter.
As pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, located less than a 10-minute drive from the airport, Father Edlefsen received a text on his phone about the crash at 11:30 p.m. and immediately headed to the airport.
“I felt it was really my duty,” he said in an interview with EWTN News Nightly. “The airport is within the boundaries of my parish; we have a lot of travelers from Reagan Airport, airline personnel come to our Masses and so on. So, I felt I need to be there.”
Families of the passengers gathered in the airport in agony, awaiting news of the fate of their loved ones.
Shock and grief
Father Edlefsen was with families when authorities made the horrible announcement at 1 a.m. that there were no survivors—all 67 lives aboard both aircraft were lost. As people struggled to process the news, Father Edlefsen knew that words would be insufficient. All he could do was be present and share in their grief.
“Everybody was in total shock. They don’t know what to say or how to react,” he explained.
The presumption is you don’t say anything. You’re just present. You listen.”
One man, there with his 6-year-old son, had lost both his wife and daughter in the crash. He shared with Father Edlefsen that his daughter had been born with cancer, and he questioned why God would miraculously save her as an infant, only to take her and his wife in a plane crash. The good pastor’s heart broke for that family. Father Edlefsen knew the family’s pastor and notified him that his parishioners had suffered a great loss. It was the least he could do to ensure they continued to receive the best care from the Church.
A good pastor allows himself to be changed as he journeys with his people, especially in their moments of sorrow. Father Edlefsen readily admits that nothing in his 24 years of priesthood compared to the emotional weight of that night:
“You will never see life the same after something like this. It changes your outlook, and it changes the way you pray, what you think about and what you ponder.”
Father Edlefsen held a vigil Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes three days after the tragedy and has continued to pray for those families. While it is easy to feel powerless, as a pastor he knows he must make the Church a caring community that embraces the suffering. The Church, he believes, must be a presence of hope in the world.
A pastoral heart for all
Father Edlefsen’s deeply pastoral heart is what led him to the airport that night, and perhaps ultimately to Catholic Extension Society. In 2024, he asked his parish to partner with us to support a namesake parish—pictured below—nearly 2,000 miles away in the rural town of Poplar, Montana, on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. The parish decided to pay for the local priest’s salary to ensure this community has the spiritual care of a good shepherd. Val Gorder, longtime parish lay leader pictured below, has been crucial to helping the priest connect with the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes make up the parish.
People from the tribes face daily challenges stemming from poverty, short life expectancy and physical hunger. The parish has a high number of funerals, including many young people, suggesting there is great need for consolation and a pastor who can provide it.
“I liked Catholic Extension Society’s mission, which seemed to be doing great work in places that people in urban and suburban areas rarely think about,” Father Edlefsen said. “I thought it would be healthy for our parishioners to have an opportunity to share some of their resources with another parish that is doing great missionary work but is nonetheless in need of support.”
Thanks to Father Edlefsen and his parishioners helping Our Lady of Lourdes in Montana, people are being fed in body and spirit by the Church. They have a pastor to weep with them in their struggles and help lift them up.
During his vigil Mass for the crash victims, Father Edlefsen said it best:
As we all process this, which takes time, the gentle whisper of God’s healing peace is working beneath the surface of things, like an underground stream, bringing all things—even life’s tragic events—to a resolution.”
A good pastor gravitates to the suffering and helps them face their darkest hours and deepest questions. He does not seek to rush God’s grace. Rather, rooted in his love for his people, he “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7).
