Better than an Oscar? On Thursday, January 28, Leonardo DiCaprio had a private meeting with Pope Francis, a Vatican spokesman confirms to Us Weekly.
The 15-minute meeting took place at the Vatican in Vatican City around 11:15 a.m. local time. The Vatican revealed, “Their conversation focused on how they can work together to address the immediate need for major action to stop the devastating impacts of climate change from leaving permanent scars on our planet.”
The Oscar contender recently donated $15 million from his namesake foundation to conservation projects around the globe. In 2015, Pope Francis, 79, released an encyclical — a papal letter to bishops in the Roman Catholic Church — calling for wealthier nations to lend a hand in solving the problems of climate change.
“The actor gave the pope a book of art from the Dutch Renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch, and at the end of the encounter, DiCaprio kissed the pope’s ring and, in Italian, thanked the Holy Father for meeting with him,” a Vatican spokesperson tells Us.
DiCaprio isn’t the first Hollywood star to meet the pope, of course. In January 2015, Angelina Jolie also met him after a Vatican screening of her film Unbroken.
And in September 2015, during his visit to America, Pope Francis attended the World Meeting of Families event where stars Mark Wahlberg, Aretha Franklin, Andrea Bocelli and comedian Jim Gaffigan all spoke or performed.
