Globe-trotting pilot says flying over 100 fellow Catholics to Rome a career highlight

WILMINGTON, Del. (OSV News) -- As a dedicated Catholic and parishioner of St. Jude's Church in North East, Maryland, airline pilot Carol Stone has been to shrines, basilicas and so many religious destinations across the world.

But it wasn't until Oct. 26 that she had the opportunity to pilot a Philadelphia-to-Rome American Airlines jet carrying more than 100 fellow Catholics from the Diocese of Wilmington to a pilgrimage in Italy for the special occasion of the Jubilee Year.

The group led by Bishop William E. Koenig will tour Rome, Assisi, Manoppello, San Giovanni Rotondo and more on the 10-day excursion. Highlights of the trip include the tombs of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Carlo Acutis, the Basilica of St. Rita, the Sanctuaries of the Holy Face and Eucharistic Miracle, the Monastery Shrine of Padre Pio, the Monastery of St. Benedict and the Grotto of St. Michael the Archangel, as well as the usual holy places in Rome and the Vatican.

In an interview with The Dialog, news outlet of the Wilmington Diocese -- which covers the state of Delaware and includes nine counties on Maryland's Eastern Shore -- Stone estimated she has made more than 130 trips to Rome and has visited most of Europe and all sorts of global destinations.

"My work allows me to attend Mass in many languages and in many countries, visit many shrines, venerate many saints' remains," Stone said. "I enjoy the cultural differences in the Masses."

"For Easter 2024 I chose to fly a trip to Doha, Qatar, to attend Mass there in support of our worldwide Catholic family. I have also attended Maronite Mass in Qatar, said in Arabic. Fascinating. The Mass was so different. And the music," she said.

Stone attended an Ambrosian Mass at the Duomo in Milan, Italy, and has been to St Peter's Basilica many times as well as the other Roman major basilicas. She has been to Russian Orthodox churches, Greek Orthodox churches, mosques and to Israel many times.

She began taking flying lessons at 16, so Stone has been flying longer than she's been legally able to drive an automobile.

"It's very easy to be a Catholic in Italy," she said of the nation where Catholic churches are numerous. "It's a little harder to be Catholic in the Netherlands and in Denmark and other northern European countries, but I do it. I find them everywhere."

She has been to Fatima in central Portugal when she flies into Lisbon and the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal in Paris, where she has visited the newly restored Notre Dame Cathedral. Stone appreciated taking the local group of Catholics to Rome and welcomed the priests on the trip to get a look at the airplane cockpit.

She said she is grateful for all of the places she has visited while doing her job and marvels at the view of the world from high in the sky: "The wonders of God's creation, from 41,000 feet. Sunrises, sunsets, Northern Lights, stars, mountain ranges, rivers, oceans."

She listed some of the highlights seen from the cockpit: the Grand Canyon, pyramids, the Nile, Sinai Peninsula, Red Sea, Persian Gulf, North Africa and more, she said, including "the expanses and colors of deserts in the Middle East and North Africa."

Stone said she found a way to be the pilot on the Delaware group's trip after seeing an announcement of the pilgrimage about a year ago. She said she will also be one of the standard three-pilot crew for the group's return trip Nov. 5.