Holy water doesn’t get airport security blessing

PARIS – Even holy water from the Roman Catholic shrine at Lourdes can’t get by airport security screening passengers for suspicious liquids.

A passenger on a new Vatican-backed charter airline had to hand over a container of water collected at Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral to security officials at the airport in southern France on Monday before boarding a return flight to Rome, officials for Mistral Air said. They identified the passenger as Italian television personality Paola Saluzzi.

Airport officials barred other pilgrims on the Mistral Air flight from taking holy water from the shrine back to Rome, the Italian news agency Apcom reported. The pilgrims protested that they had waited in long lines to fill up their bottles with holy water from the grotto.

Airport officials refused to comment on the incident, saying only that international regulations banning passengers from carrying containers with more than 3 ounces of liquid aboard are applied across the board.

Security measures limiting liquids allowed in carry-on baggage came in response to claims by British police that there was a plot in 2006 to bring down U.S.-bound flights out of London’s Heathrow airport using liquid explosives.