Leonardo DiCaprio Skips to Front of Line to Talk Climate With Pope Francis

Actor and pontiff meet in Vatican to chat about environment, Hieronymus Bosch

Leonardo DiCaprio Golden Globes
Getty Images

“The Revenant” star Leonardo DiCaprio met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Thursday, the Associated Press reports. Among the topics on their agenda: the environment, which both men have displayed an interest in protecting.

That’s right: One’s a revered movie star with a history of consorting with models, and the other is a pontiff who has been hailed for his relatively progressive stances on many contemporary issues.

So can these two kids save the environment together?

During the meet-up, DiCaprio forked over a check to the pontiff to help with his charitable efforts. The actor also gifted the Pope with a book of works by Hieronymus Bosch, explaining how he feels that the 15th-century Dutch painter’s “Garden of Earthly Delights” — a reproduction of which hung over DiCaprio’s crib as a child — reminds him of the world’s environmental woes.

“As a child I didn’t quite understand what it all meant, but through my child’s eyes it represented a planet, the utopia we had been given, the overpopulation, excesses, and the third panel we see a blackened sky that represents so much to me of what’s going in in the environment,” the actor said.

DiCaprio didn’t walk away from the meeting empty-handed either. He received a leather-bound copy of Francis’ encyclical “Laudato si’” (“Praise Be to You”), which calls for green energy sources, and his previous document “The Joy of the Gospel.”

Comments