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Pope marries couple on plane over Chile

Photo: AFP/Getty Images

 

Pope Francis celebrated the first-ever airborne papal wedding on Thursday, marrying two flight attendants from Chile’s flagship airline at 36,000 feet during a flight from Santiago, AP reported.

Bride Paula Podest, 39, and groom Carlos Ciuffardi, 41, said “I do” after telling Francis that they had been married in a civil service in 2010 but had been unable to follow up with a church ceremony because of the Feb. 27, 2010, earthquake that rocked Chile.

Francis then offered to marry the LATAM flight attendants aboard the Airbus 321 en route to the northern beach city of Iquique, and they readily agreed. The head of the airline served as the witness.

“He told me it’s historic, that there has never before been a pope who married someone aboard a plane,” Ciuffardi told journalists aboard the flight.

Ciuffardi said the pope also told them: “This is the sacrament that is missing in the world, the sacrament of marriage. May this motivate others to get the sacrament of marriage. I’ll do it for this reason.”

Podest and Ciuffardi, who have two children, 6-year-old Rafaela and 3-year-old Isabela, said they plan to take a “mini-honeymoon” and return to Santiago on Friday.

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