The day the Vatican flag went to the Moon
It’s one of the most astonishing items on display in the Vatican Museums. A flag from the world’s smallest state, which was carried to the Moon by the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission, is displayed in a showcase, along with a few fragments of the lunar surface. A small plaque reads: “This flag traveled to the Moon and returned with Apollo 11, and these fragments of the lunar surface were brought back to Earth by the first crew to reach the Moon.”
A gesture by the US President
The flag was presented to Pope Paul VI by US President Richard Nixon during his second visit to the Vatican on September 29, 1970, following a first meeting with the Italian pope on March 2, 1969.
President Nixon, a Quaker, was concerned by what he saw as the Holy See’s overtures toward Communist regimes. Buoyed by the worldwide enthusiasm generated by the Moon mission, which had enabled the United States to assert its technological and cultural supremacy over the rival Soviet Union, he thus sought to anchor the Papacy within the Western bloc.
Naturally aware of the risk of instrumentalization in this complex Cold War climate, Paul VI nonetheless watched with passion man’s first steps on the Moon, which he followed live on television from his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo.
