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This morning,
for the first time in its history, Ferrari was received by
the Pope, John Paul II. The audience was held in the Sala
Clementina at the Vatican’s Palazzo Apostolico. Present was
a delegation of 95 Ferrari representatives from all the
company’s departments, a real cross section of the Maranello
team.
President
Montezemolo was in attendance with his wife Ludovica. Piero
Ferrari and his wife, Floriana, were also there, flanked by
Jean Todt, Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Luca
Badoer.
In an atmosphere
full of emotion the delegation warmly applauded the entrance
of Pope John Paul II. President Montezemolo then gave his
thanks and those of Ferrari as a whole. ‘I have the pleasure
of presenting the drivers, the mechanics, production line
staff, managers and the Ferrari squad. I would also like to
greet you on the part of all those at Ferrari who wanted to
be here and who are following proceedings live on Telepace’,
began Montezemolo.
‘Allow me to do this in your own words drawn from the
Enciclica Centesimus Annus, in which you described a company
as a “community of people”. Community is the key word, the
formula one of our success. Victory is born from a mechanism
made of many gears but one soul’.
‘Holy Father,
last week when you met the ambassadors from 170 countries,
you outlined to them the formula for setting into motion a
moral and civil progress. Life, bread, peace and liberty:
these are the four challenges you highlighted, showing the
world once again how you are in pole position on the road of
humanity’.
Montezemolo went
on to present the Pope a gift from Ferrari for the 26th year
of his papacy, the first ever model of the F2004, in 1:5
scale. ’This is to say that we feel that you are “one of the
team”. We feel privileged to be here and this gift is a
demonstration of our honour’.
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