|
 DiCaprio, who is known as Leo, was received by Pope Francis,
the Vatican said, without giving details.
But the one-line announcement was enough to send photographers
and television crews scrambling to stake out the Vatican's gates
to try to catch him coming out.
Footage issued later from Vatican television showed that the
audience was connected to their mutual concern about the
environment and climate change.
DiCaprio, speaking Italian, thanked the pope for receiving him
and then, switching to English, gave him a book of paintings by
16th century Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch.
Pointing to one painting, DiCaprio told the pope it had hung
over his bed as a boy and said "through my child's eyes it
represented our planet."
"It represents to me the promise of the future and enlightenment
and it is representational of your view here as well," he said.
He later gave the pope a check for an undisclosed sum which
appeared to be a donation for papal charities.
[to top of second column] |
Last week, the 41-year-old Oscar nominee was honored at the 22nd
Annual Crystal Awards held at the World Economic Forum in Davos for
his foundation's support of conservation and sustainability
projects.
The pope wrote a major Catholic Church document known as an
encyclical last year in defense of the environment and has often
said that time was running out for mankind to save the planet from
the potentially devastating effects of global warming.
The pope gave DiCaprio a copy of his encyclical and asked the actor
to pray for him.
(Additional reporting by Eleanor Biles, Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
