Walt Disney World is a unique place to visit. When you enter the resort area, it’s as if you are leaving the outside world behind. With many hotels (or resorts as they call them), shopping, transportation, and theme park options (including a mini golf course), you will have basically no reason to leave WDW once you arrive. There are even a couple of times per year when you can go to Mass on Walt Disney World property--Christmas and Easter (the times may change every year, but one year it was 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.). The Masses are located at the Contemporary Resort’s Fantasia Ballroom. However, if you are at WDW any other Sunday or Holy Day, you will need to leave WDW to get to Mass.
Fortunately, there is a nice option just outside WDW (near Disney Springs)—the Basilica and Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe (https://maryqueenoftheuniverse.org). The Basilica and Shrine was instituted in 1979 (8 years after WDW opened) by the Diocese of Orlando to be the place where the millions of Catholic visitors to WDW could call their spiritual home during their vacations. Monsignor Joseph Harte, who was assigned with focusing on ministry to tourists in 1975 credits a visit to Our Lacy of Lourdes for the idea that lead to a “spiritual oasis” for the world. During my trip in 2016, I went to the Basilica at least a couple of times for daily Mass and prayer. They have Eucharistic Adoration and Confessions there, too, as well as a museum and outdoor grounds, so it is a very good place of pilgrimage. As of December 2020, their Sunday Mass times are 6 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m., 10 a.m., 12 p.m. on Sunday. The other Catholic parish that is relatively accessible from Walt Disney World is Corpus Christi Parish (https://corpuschristi.church). It is south of WDW near the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. It is located in the town of Celebration, which was originally designed by the Walt Disney Company. Their Sunday Mass times (as of December 2020) are 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 a.m., 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 12:15 p.m., and 5:30 p.m. Sunday. My prayer is that this post will help even one person to keep holy the Lord’s Day when at WDW (especially after the dispensation to attend Mass due to the pandemic is lifted).
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