Pope Francis marries flight attendants during impromptu mid-air ceremony

Pope Francis with flight attendants Carlos Ciuffardi and Paola Podest.
(Image credit: L'Osservatore Romano Vatican Media/Pool Photo via AP)

Their guests were strangers and the wedding feast was airplane food, but when Pope Francis offers to marry you while flying 36,000 feet above Chile, you work with what you've got.

Carlos Ciuffardi and Paula Podest are flight attendants with LATAM, Chile's flagship airline, and they were aboard the pontiff's Thursday flight from Santiago to Iquique. They were married in a civil ceremony in 2010 and had a church ceremony planned, but an earthquake toppled their church's bell tower and their wedding was canceled. Life and the birth of two children got in the way, and the couple never rescheduled. They asked Pope Francis for a blessing, and when he heard their story, he immediately asked if they would like him to marry them right there and then.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.