By Jo Ann Zuniga | Catholic News Service
HOUSTON – Gene Kranz, NASA flight director during the 1969 landing of the first man on the moon, spoke about faith and family to more than 1,000 attending the Galveston Houston Archdiocesan Prayer Breakfast July 30.
In attendance were four of his daughters, among his six children, who praised all that Kranz has done to commemorate his fellow space pioneers and the historic event. His long list of public appearances included being acknowledged by President Donald Trump during the Fourth of July celebrations in Washington.
An aerospace engineer and former U.S. fighter pilot in Korea, Kranz retired from NASA in 1994 after 37 years of federal service working on Mercury, Apollo and Shuttle space missions. He told the crowd at the breakfast, “God’s mark is everywhere and is on everything.”
He recalled growing up in Ohio and being an altar boy at St. Agnes Catholic Church next door to his home. His father, a World War I vet, died when Kranz was only 7. So his mother opened up their house to take in boarders. Many of them were soldiers on leave.
“I remember serving at morning Mass that turned into weddings for the soldiers about to ship off. Our priest, Father John Jamison, was a father figure to many whose fathers were fighting in the war,” he said.
With his interest in the military and flying firmly entrenched, he completed pilot training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas in 1955. Shortly after receiving his wings, Kranz married Marta Cadena, who sewed his vests made famous during Apollo missions, including one exhibited in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
Looking for work as a test pilot, he was reading a trade journal. “Whenever there is a fork in the road and a major decision, it’s always part of God’s plan,” he said.
“The government was looking into the feasibility of putting Americans in space flight,” Kranz said. He applied for the program.
Kranz shared how he and Marta are now parishioners at Shrine of the True Cross Catholic Church in Dickinson, Texas, where he taught Continuing Christian Education in past years and is an active member of the Knights of Columbus. He showed a photo projected on a screen of his tattered copy of “The Shield of Faith: Reflections and Prayers for Wartime” written by then-Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen.
“I pulled this prayer book out many a time,” Kranz said. “I’ve been asked if I ever felt stress. No matter, I always felt the presence of God in my work and life.”