Originally Posted by goback

Apparently no airline in the US was willing to fly the Pope back to Rome.

The rumour for his trip to Sydney for World Youth Day is a non-stop flight Rome to Sydney, which at 10,155nm will be something like the very first 747-400 flight of QF from LHR to SYD with only a few people on board.
I had heard QF will be providing both legs for that journey. The return journey will be interesting because of the prevailing winds, though the jetstream should be fairly to the north (in the northern hemisphere) at that time of year.
I very much doubt that CIA will be the departing airport as the runway there would not be long enough for a fully fuel laden widebody, so my bet would be FCO. I'm assuming that QF will use a 747-400ER which has the longest legs in the QF fleet.