Buying vapes might not seem like ministry work, but for Robert Petro, it’s all in the line of duty to make seafarers comfortable in the United States.
This isn’t just putting them in pews for a worship service to attend to the spiritual needs. Petro, a deacon based at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Chesterton, deals with seafarers’ more basic needs, too.
A standard request might be, “I haven’t touched ground in four months. We have no deodorant. We have no toothpaste. Can you take us to Walmart?”
Then there’s the seafarer who needed vapes. That led Petro, a nonsmoker, to ask strangers in a Walmart parking lot, “Who knows where I can buy vapes?”
For Ukrainians, it’s a different dynamic. “They want to go shopping. They want to buy stuff.” They also know they can’t go home.
One sailor from Mariupol said 99% of his family is gone. Much of his town is gone. He thought he might be able to meet what’s left of the family in Bulgaria.
“That type of ministry, when you’re doing shopping runs, you just sit with them quietly,” Petro said. “I’ve seen them fall asleep; they get so relaxed.”
On one shopping trip, Petro took a Ukrainian captain and first mate to Walmart in Merrillville. “Life in America is easy, isn’t it?” the captain remarked.
“It’s just a whole different way of living. We’re very blessed in this country, really,” Petro said.
A crew from India wanted to go to Mass, so he took them to Mass. “Usually, I offer to feed them.”
That includes offering them a home-cooked meal. “In my 15 years of being a seafarer, I’ve never had someone invite me into their home,” one man told him.
Often, seafarers who come to the Port of Indiana in Portage are on nine-month contracts. “Give them some solid ground, some home,” he said.
Petro has been doing this ministry for about a year, after being ordained June 8, 2024. As part of becoming a deacon, you get your parish assignment and an outside ministry, too, he explained. As he explored his options, the Stella Maris ministry felt well grounded.
Water is in his blood.
His great-uncle was a merchant marine in World War II when the ship was sunk on its way to Murmansk in what is now Russia. “The Germans said they were going to obliterate the entire convoy, and they pretty much did,” Petro said.
That great-uncle became a prisoner of war.
Petro’s father enjoyed time on the water, too. “My dad had a little sailboat when I was in high school,” tooling around on Cedar Lake.
Petro learned his way around a boat growing up. “Port is four letters, and so is the word left,” he explained, as he memorized port from starboard, fore from aft.
“We have port chaplains all over the country,” serving over 100 ports in the United States, he said.
Stella Maris UK, “they’ve been doing Stella Maris the longest,” offering protection and aid to seafarers.
“The biggest challenge in the ministry is that the time at port is getting shorter and shorter,” Petro said. Before, the captain and crew might have had an entire shift off, but ships are unloaded quickly and then move on to the next destination.
“The industry’s getting leaner and meaner from that perspective.”
“They’re constantly tired, it seems like,” working six hours on, six hours off. “How do they get any sleep?”
Petro cited a sailor from Yemen with satellite communications aboard a ship. “They all get off their shift and they go to the bunks and get on their phones,” he said.
Port Director Ryan McCoy said he values the work of Petro and others in ministering to the seafarers’ needs.
“I believe the Stella Maris and other ministries are important to the seafarers. They spend long periods of time at sea, away from their families,” he said. “We know they deal with personal issues such as loneliness while they are away from their families.”
“What they do for the global supply chain is critically important to keep goods and commodities moving. When they come to our port, they are eager to get to town for supplies, a good meal and some for religious reasons. The local shipping agents and ministry services help them with all of these needs,” McCoy said.
Petro began his Stella Maris ministry focused on the south end of Lake Michigan, but he’s now also working to help provide services throughout the Great Lakes and Mississippi River.
“I’m trying to help us nationally,” he said. “The need is great, but the workers are few.”
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
