Would you feel safer on a flight if it were bound for the Holy Land? What if the destination wasn’t the only holy part of the trip? What if the entire plane was affiliated with some of the holiest people in the Catholic Church?
It may not guarantee that your luggage won’t get lost, but at least you won’t have to worry about seeing an inappropriate movie in mid-air. A Vatican-backed charter airline, taking flight for the first time this week, has one goal in mind—safely transporting travelers to popular Catholic destinations, including Fatima, Portugal; Lourdes, France; Santiago de Compostela, Spain; the Holy Land; Czestochowa, Poland; and Sinai, Egypt.
The airline says it has tailored its plane to meet pilgrims’ needs. Some of the more unique touches include inscriptions such as “I search for Your face, Lord,” decorating the seats, and religious videos shown during the flight.
“We want to create the conditions to enable pilgrims to live their pilgrimage starting at their city’s airport and even before they arrive at their destinations,” the Rev. Caesar Atuire, CEO for the “Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi,” a group that organizes pilgrimages for the Diocese of Rome told reporters.
The airline uses modern jets and offers flights departing from seven Italian airports. Officials expect to fly an estimated 150,000 passengers a year to various Catholic shrines around the world. A finalized schedule and a list of fares have yet to be released; however, the airline says it hopes to offer pilgrims special travel deals.
By the way, contrary to popular belief, the Vatican does not have its own airline (or its own airport). The pope does ride in a specially designed Pope-mobile during public appearances, but he does not have a Pope-plane. Rather, the leader of the Catholic Church regularly takes chartered flights on commercial carriers for his trips around the globe.
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