Roberto Benigni, who won the Oscars for best actor and best foreign-language film for “Life is Beautiful” in 1999, cheered at the end of what was essentially a religious ceremony. He began to greet “all the important persons” and pretended to have forgotten the Pope.
After the audience laughed, the actor immediately turned to the Pope and said: “I want to hug you or dance the tango because you are Argentine.”
“Before I entered, two Swiss guards approached me and said: Mr. Benicni, you can do anything, you can’t do only one thing: you can’t touch the Pope. A kiss, I can give a kiss, what? Kisses if I can’t give?”, the actor said before approaching the Pope and kissing him on both cheeks.
Pope Francis (L) embraces Italian film director Roberto Benigni during his World Children’s Day Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on May 26, 2024.
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Benigni continued in the same tone for half an hour, alternately joking and admonishing the children, proposing that the pope be his partner in the next papal election, or asking the little children to nurture their dreams, because they might be among them. The first pope was African or Asian, or the first female pope.
Francisco already concluded the first World Children’s Day with a traditional mass in St. Peter’s Square in front of tens of thousands of faithful, children and parents. The 87-year-old Argentine pope, joined by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, began the mass with requests for children to “pray for peace” before turning in a brief homily at the last minute. catechism class.
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