Pope Francis married a couple of airline employees aboard the papal plane as it flew over Chile on the third day of his South American trip. Francis formally joined in matrimony 41-year-old Carlos Ciuffardi and Paula Podest, 39, who have two children and are both flight attendants. The Chilean couple married in a civil ceremony in 2010 but were never formally wed in the eyes of the Catholic Church. The brief ceremony took place at an altitude of 36,000 feet (11,000 meters) on a two-hour flight taking the pope from the capital Santiago to the northern city of Iquique. Tens of thousands of pilgrims were awaiting the pope in Iquique, where he was scheduled to celebrate an open-air mass on the shores of the Pacific on the third day of his visit.

Source: The Guardian January 18, 2018 14:48 UTC