Pope traveled to Brazil without passport: Report

Associated Press

Rio De Janeiro (Brazil): Even the pope needs a passport. But did Benedict XVI forget this, when he flew to Brazil this month for his first papal visit to the world’s largest Roman Catholic country?

A respected Brazilian newspaper columnist insists the pope didn’t have it with him when he landed in Sao Paulo, and high-ranking officials from the Vatican to Brazil’s presidential palace aren’t commenting.

Merval Pereira, who writes for Rio’s O Globo newspaper, reported Tuesday that the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, also showed up in Brazil without his passport.

The two were allowed to enter the country, but Pereira said the government found a way to penalize the oversight without causing a stir. It quietly fined Italian airline Alitalia SpA for allowing the two foreigners to travel without documentation to Brazil.

Pereira didn’t cite a source for his report, but it came a day after another Brazilian columnist also said the pope arrived in Brazil for his May 9-13 visit without his passport.

On Wednesday, federal police in Sao Paulo who oversee passport control at the airport where the papal plane landed declined comment. Asked about the case, an officer who would not give her name in keeping with department policy said "that information is secret."

In the capital of Brasilia, a priest at the Apostolic Nuncio who would only identify himself as Father Marco said he wasn’t authorised to comment. Marcelo Baumbach, the spokesman for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, wouldn’t confirm whether the incident happened.

Source: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=87407

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