Francis marries couple on plane

Finding out they had civil wedding, pope does honors

IQUIQUE, Chile — It was all in a day’s work for the ever-unpredictable Pope Francis.

First he celebrated the first airborne papal wedding, marrying two flight attendants from Chile’s flagship airline at 36,000 feet during a flight Thursday to this northern Chilean beachside town.

Then after landing, Francis came to the rescue of a policewoman who was thrown from her rearing horse as his popemobile passed by.

In between, he did what he actually came to do: celebrate Mass for some 50,000 people in a desert-hot field near the town of Iquique.

It all began with LATAM Flight 1250 from Santiago.

The crew was gathering in the first class section for the usual photo with the pope when flight attendants Paula Podest and Carlos Ciuffardi revealed that they were a married couple. Francis motioned for them to sit next to him for the photo and asked if they had been married in the church.

They told Francis that they had been married in a civil service in 2010 but had been unable to follow up with a church ceremony because the Feb. 27, 2010, earthquake that rocked Chile had damaged the church.

The airborne wedding came about spontaneously, as is often the case with the ever-surprising Francis.

“We told him that we are husband and wife, that we have two daughters and that we would have loved to receive his blessing,” Ciuffardi said. “All of a sudden he asked us if we were married in the church, too.”

The couple explained that their church’s bell tower had fallen during the quake, forcing the cancellation of the church service. One thing led to another, and they never followed up.

“He liked us and he asked, ‘Do you want me to marry you?’ ” Ciuffardi said. “He asked: ‘Are you sure?’ ‘Yes, of course!’ we said.”

A Vatican official then hastily drew up an official, albeit handwritten, marriage certificate, stating that the two had consented to the sacrament of marriage on Jan. 18, 2018, and that Francis had blessed it “aboard the papal plane from Santiago to Iquique.”

The Associated Press Pope Francis marries flight attendants Carlos Ciuffardi, left, and Paola Podest, center, during a flight Thursday from Santiago, Chile, to Iquique, Chile.