"Air pilgrims face holy water ban"

"Pilgrims on the Vatican's new chartered airline have been told to leave holy water behind for security reasons.
Officials at Tarbes-Lourdes airport in southern France said that bottles of water from the shrine at Lourdes could present a potential terrorist threat.
The pilgrims were told they could not carry holy water in bottles bigger than the maximum allowed: 100 ml.
Security staff at the airport said they were simply following international anti-terror regulations.
Measures limiting liquids allowed in carry-on baggage came in response to claims by British police in 2006 that there was a plot to bring down US-bound flights using liquid explosives.
Francesco Pizzo, Mistral Air's president, said the company had to respect international regulations on the matter.
The airline provided a small bottle of holy water, in the shape of the Virgin Mary, for each passenger, once they had boarded the plane for the flight home from Lourdes.
Mistral Air began flights from Rome to Lourdes on Monday and plans to extend its service to other Roman Catholic shrines."

Source: BBC News.

"Vatican plans flights to shrines"

"The Vatican is to launch a low-cost charter flight service to transport pilgrims to holy sites worldwide.
The inaugural flight on 27 August will go from Rome to Lourdes in France.
A small Italian airline, Mistral, will provide the planes, with the interiors decorated with sacred inscriptions such as: 'I search for your face, Lord.'
Other destinations could include Fatima in Portugal and Santiago di Compostela in Spain, the Holy Land, Poland and a Catholic shrine in Mexico.
The vicar of Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, is expected to be on the first flight to Lourdes, which already attracts eight million pilgrims each year.

Big Business
Some of the cabin crew will be 'specialised in the voyages of a sacred nature' according Italy's Ansa news agency.
The BBC's David Willey in Rome says religious tourism is already big business, with some 200 million Christian pilgrims expected to visit holy places in different parts of the world this year.
When Pope Benedict XVI travels abroad he normally charters a plane from the Italian national carrier, Alitalia, or from the country he is visiting, our correspondent says.
The Vatican City has no airport, just a helipad used occasionally by the Pope."

Source: BBC NEWS.

Holy See Prepares for 30 million visitors in 2000

The Vatican has created a new website to provide advice for the estimated 30 million pilgrims expected to visit the Holy See in 2000. The site is available in Italian, French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, German, Latin and Polish. Russian, Chinese and Arabic are expected to be added. It has also issued a new "smart card", a computerised Pilgrim's Card which can be used to purchase transport, food, insurance, phone calls and other services. A microchip on the card can also contain essential information on the health of the bearer.

(Originally posted by John Downes)