A San Marino-Rome flight to deliver a message of peace to Pope Francis
It will take place in the morning with the aim of supporting the appeals of Pope Francis in the world and, in particular, to stop the escalation that the war in Ukraine is experiencing. The event started by Aeroclub San Marino not new to similar initiatives. The plane, says Corrado Carattoni among the main organizers, was invented to unite peoples and cultures, not to bring weapons and destruction
Adriana Masotti – Vatican City
The plane, a “historic invention that has made it possible to overcome the distances between peoples, which has favored cultural exchange between nations and has made it possible to reach even the most distant places to bring help and to save human lives”. This was stated by Maria Luisa Berti, captain regent of the Republic of San Marino, announcing the initiative of the Flight of Peace, between the small state and Rome, to bring Pope Francis a message of closeness to his commitment to the cessation of all war in the world and, particularly at this time, in Europe.
The aeroclub of San Marino in audience with Francesco
The event started from Aeroclub San Marino, active since 1985. The flight will take place on Saturday 8 October. There will be 5 light aircraft that departing from the Torraccia aerodrome will land at the Rome-Urbe airport. From here the pilots and other participants in the initiative, including the Secretary of State of San Marino and the ambassador to the Holy See, Maria Alessandra Albertini, will reach the Vatican for an audience with Pope Francis at 10.15. The meeting will also be attended by Monsignor Paul Richard Gallagher, Vatican Secretary for Relations with States who immediately supported the initiative.
Carattoni: Airplanes were not designed to carry weapons
It is not the first time that the San Marino Aeroclub has organized a flight to deliver a message of peace to a Pope. It happened just 10 years ago. To the microphones of Vatican News, Corrado Carattoniformer president of the Aeroclub remembers that event and describes the next Flight of which he is the main organizer:
Corrado Carattoni, the initiative on Saturday 8 October has a precedent which then involved Pope Benedict XVI: can you tell us about it?
Yes, exactly in September 10 years ago, on the occasion of an aeronautical fair that was held here in Rimini, we joined an initiative that celebrated the millennium of the dedication of the Basilica of San Sepolcro and we left with 4 aircraft to go to Rome in a Flight of Peace, in fact, destination the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, who at that time resided in Castel Gandolfo. It was an exciting thing. Among other things, Benedict on that occasion recalled with our pleasure the visit he had made the previous year to the Republic of San Marino. So we had this to do a Flight of Peace, let’s say generic, while instead the initiative on Saturday will be a little more specific, aimed at the times we are experiencing opportunities.
In fact, next Saturday’s Flight of Peace fits into a very different context …
Of course, let’s say that we first proposed this Flight to our government authorities. You know that the Republic of San Marino has always been neutral and ours has always been a people who live in peace. The last war in which San Marino took part dates back to 1400, so our vocation for peace is known throughout the world. First, therefore, we presented the initiative to our Foreign Minister who approved it and, in fact, the Foreign Minister will be with us to bring Pope Francis the message of the regent captains who are the heads of state of the Republic of San Marine. In this message they reiterate the closeness of the Republic of San Marino to the ideas of peace that the Pope is pursuing with all his strength and all his authority, and obviously they also reiterate the invitation to the Holy Father to make a pastoral visit to the Republic of San Marino. This institutional part was added to the idea of the Flight of Peace which was exhibited at the beginning of this summer to Monsignor Gallagher and having ascertained the approval of the Holy See, we are now preparing to experience great emotion. The purpose of the Flight is to give an image, an image of what the spirit of flight actually is, the spirit of the pilots which is certainly not the warrior spirit. We are convinced that the air vehicle has greatly contributed to the progress of mankind, to bringing peoples and cultures closer together, to shortening the distances between peoples and to saving many human lives. Where the air vehicle arrives, due to its speed, it can be useful precisely for these beneficial purposes. We are all convinced that those who invented flight, the forerunners of the airplane, never want to think that their invention, instead of flying high, would have fallen so low, that is, that these means of war were created that bring destruction, death and terror and we really want to say this to the Pope: ours is not a “political” visit, we will not talk about war in Ukraine or other wars, we simply say that the pilots of San Marino want only for peace and therefore carry on their wings the message that the Holy Father is sending to the world.
This is a very special initiative, but the San Marino Aeroclub is active every day. What is its reality and its activity?
The Aeroclub was born in 1985 practically paving a field because San Marino is a hilly area, so it is not easy to have the space to build an airport. One of its aims is always to be able to develop mainly the aeronautical culture and to convince the various governments of San Marino of the need to develop a runway as long as possible to be connected with the world. To date, there is only a tourist activity carried out there – given the length of the runway, large airplanes cannot land – but touring gliders that come from all over Europe. Then there is a flight school activity for young people; we are members of the Civil Protection of San Marino, therefore we also carry out civil protection flights that are used to report accidents, fires or to search for missing persons. Over time we have also made large events, for example, we flew the flag of the Republic of San Marino in 1998 with the Shuttle and then we sent it on a flight to America. Starting from San Marino, this flag flew around the planet for 10 days and then was brought back to San Marino by the astronauts of the STS 91 mission: a beautiful image event came out and we focus a lot on this aspect because the image is conscience .
How will the San Marino – Rome flight take place, how long will it take and how many pilots will participate?
There will be 5 veils including the one that the Secretary of State will carry, a slightly more performing aircraft. 11 pilots will be present at the audience with Pope Francis. The flight takes about an hour or even an hour and a half depending on the speed of the plane, starting from San Marino and landing at the Rome-Urbe airport on Via Salaria which is a small airport just outside Rome. . Obviously it is not possible to get to the Vatican because you could only get there by helicopters, but we do not have helicopters.