On board with Pope Francis

By Linda Bordoni – Aboard the papal flight to Jakarta

We must have been about 40 minutes into the ITA Airways papal flight to Jakarta for the first stop of the Pope‘s 12-day visit to four countries in Asia and Oceania.

As per protocol, we boarded the plane well before the Holy Father and were well settled in the section at the back of the plane reserved for the press.

Spirits were high, and old friends and acquaintances of many journeys past were chatting across the isles, when suddenly a crack in the curtains separating the various sections of the plane gave way to an expectant lull and buzz of excitement: Pope Francis had come to greet us!

He paused at the top of the aisle, and with a big smile and gentle voice, said, “Thank you!” to the some 85 journalists accredited to the papal plane.

And then, contrary to what had been planned, he walked all the way down the left-hand isle and back up the right, stopping to shake hands and exchange a personal greeting with every reporter, editor, cameraman and video-maker on board.

His priceless (and tireless) aid, Salvatore Scolozzi, who looks after “the press” every minute during the journey, introduced newcomers and recalled the names and publications of the veterans, one by one.

The Pope had a word for each. Some asked for prayers for friends in distress, some offered their rosaries to be blessed, others had brought a gift for the Holy Father, like the torch from a migrant rescue boat that helped a group of migrants make their way to safety through the darkness of the unknown.

One gift he appeared to appreciate in particular, was the t-shirt of a young boy who was stabbed to death in Spain just a few weeks ago as he played football with his friends.

Prejudice, fear and hate speech had groundlessly pointed to the involvement of a North African migrant sheltered nearby, singling him out as the killer and giving life to a groundswell of hatred and xenophobia until police investigations led to the true culprit – a local man with psychiatric problems – and the migrant’s innocence was publicly proclaimed.

The Pope’s “thank you,” I realized, was for conveying his message and his closeness as he travels to faraway corners of the earth. But it was also for telling the stories of those who are forced to flee their homes, who embark on dark and dangerous journeys, who find themselves rejected, turned away, marginalized and even sentenced and condemned for sins they did not commit, just like Jesus.

The papal flight to Jakarta