The day that the Pope has had to accept putting his security in the hands of a woman

Simone Risoluti is the Vatican photographer in charge of documenting all of Leo XIV's activity. Last Monday, he captured the moment when the pope was talking to the pilots of the plane that was taking him from Lourdes to Metz, on the last day of his visit to France. The scene has a touch of irony that the photographer seems to accentuate: the pope in the sky, closer to God. He is there thanks to aeronautical engineering and the work of the pilots. The ecclesiastical authority who speaks of elevating souls and guiding them to heaven in the cockpit of an aircraft. Here, faith is not as important as mechanics and technology. The scene also recalls those old jokes where all kinds of celebrities would coincide on a plane and, faced with a critical situation, everyone had to jump, but there was always one parachute missing.

In the photograph, the Air France pilots observe the pontiff with a smile. They exude the naturalness of their daily work routine and of those who have everything under control, even if they have an unusual passenger that day. After landing, co-pilot Éric Marguerite explained to the press that the pope had spent a good part of the journey with them in the cockpit. Leo XIV, more serious, seems slightly uncomfortable, a bit rigid, with that hint of insecurity of someone who has to adapt to a space that, due to the number of screens, buttons, and little lights, can be overwhelming. The bird's-eye view also causes a bit of vertigo. The Pope holds his pectoral cross with his right hand, in a gesture that could seem like a way of commending himself to God. After all, the plane is one of the places where people most often pray, even those who never do.

Piloting the Airbus A321 is a woman: Captain Clémence Coussonneau, with twenty-one years of experience at the company. Her presence before the Pope is very significant. A decision that cannot be casual and which gives off a certain poetry. The Pope presides over a church where women still occupy a secondary role and remain excluded from the priestly hierarchy. Here, the distribution of roles is reversed: Coussonneau is in control. She is the main figure in a context that conveys complexity and great responsibility. For once, we see the Pope occupying a secondary place. In 2016, during a return flight from Sweden, the then Pope Francis reiterated to journalists that women could not be ordained as priests. A decade later, lo and behold, this photograph shows the leadership of a woman at the controls of the plane tasked with carrying the Pope. Conversely, the institution he presides over continues to reserve the highest positions in its hierarchy only for men. The photograph makes this contradiction visible: even if only for a while, the Pope must accept placing his safety in the hands of a woman whom the Church continues to deny equal treatment.