On board with Pope Francis

By Linda Bordoni – On board the papal flight to Jakarta

We were supposed to be about 40 minutes away from the papal ITA Airways flight to Jakarta for the first leg of the pope’s 12-day visit to four countries in Asia and Oceania.

As is protocol, we boarded the plane well before the Holy Father and were comfortably seated in the press section at the back of the plane.

The mood was high, and old friends and acquaintances from many past trips were chatting across the islands, when suddenly a crack in the curtains separating the different sections of the plane gave way to a lull and a buzz of excitement: Pope Francis had come to greet us!

He stopped at the top of the aisle and, with a big smile and a soft voice, said, “Thank you!” to the 85 or so journalists accredited on the papal plane.

And then, contrary to plan, he walked the entire length of the left aisle and up the right, stopping to shake hands and exchange personal greetings with every reporter, editor, cameraman and videographer on board.

His precious (and tireless) assistant, Salvatore Scolozzi, who takes care of “the press” at every moment of the journey, introduces the newcomers and recalls one by one the names and publications of the veterans.

The pope had a word for everyone. Some asked for prayers for their friends in distress, others offered their rosary to be blessed, still others brought a gift for the Holy Father, such as the torch from a migrant rescue boat that helped a group of migrants reach safety in the darkness of the unknown.

One gift he seemed to particularly appreciate was a T-shirt from a young boy who was stabbed to death in Spain a few weeks ago while playing football with his friends.

Prejudice, fear and hate speech had unfoundedly pointed to the involvement of a North African migrant housed nearby, designating him as the murderer and giving rise to a wave of hatred and xenophobia until police investigations led to the real culprit – a local man suffering from psychiatric problems – and the migrant’s innocence was publicly proclaimed.

The Pope’s “thank you,” I understood, is for having transmitted his message and his closeness to the most remote places on earth. But it is also for having told the story of those who are forced to flee their homes, who undertake dark and dangerous journeys, who find themselves rejected, pushed back, marginalized and even condemned for sins they did not commit, just like Jesus.

The papal flight to Jakarta