VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Passengers on United Airlines "fly the friendly skies" and on American Airlines they hope to experience "something special in the air".

But a slogan by a new, Vatican-approved charter service leaves little doubt about what its clients are doing at 30,000 feet: "I'm Searching for Your Face, Lord". Mistral Air plans to shuttle Catholic pilgrims around the globe to holy sites, including the shrine of Fatima in Portugal and the shrine of the Madonna of Guadalupe in Mexico. "The spirit of this new initiative is to meet the growing demand by pilgrims to visit the most important sites for the faith," Father Cesare Atuire at the Vatican pilgrimage office, the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, told La Repubblica daily.