Aboard a domestic flight in Chile, Pope Francis took to task in joining two flight attendants in holy matrimony. The first ever airborne wedding celebration for the pontiff.

During a flight Thursday from the capital city Santiago bound for Iquique, flight attendants; Paula Podest Ruiz,39, and Carlos Cuiffadi Elorriga,41, were joined in marriage by Pope Francis who performed the ceremony himself.

Having informed the sovereign pontiff of the Roman Catholic church about their civil service union in Santiago, but plans of their religious ceremony had not been feasible due to structural damages suffered by their local parish from the 2010 earthquake, Francis posed the question to the couple ”Do you want me to marry you?” the flabbergasted lovebirds responded ”Here?” to which the holy father replied ”yes” and went on to wed them. An executive for the airline bore witness and document authenticating the marriage signed by a Chilean bishop flying with the crew.

While on a six-day working visit to Chile, the trip has not shied away from controversy. A good number of Chileans have voiced their discontent with the pope’s decision to bishop, with a history of covering up sex abuses as head of a diocese in Chile.

Neba Benson,

BaretaNews Foreign Correspondent/Analyst