Pope Francis meets with Italian actor Roberto Benigni during a private audience at the Vatican, December 7, 2022. Vatican Media/Handout via REUTERS
VATICAN CITY — Oscar-winning Italian comic and actor Roberto Benigni brought a bit of his trademark whacky levity to the Vatican on Wednesday, hamming it up for Pope Francis.
Benigni had a private meeting with the pope before his weekly general audience and there were laughs all around.
When Benigni cracked that the pope was “lucent … emanating light”, the pope responded, “Don’t exaggerate!”
Benigni repiled, “I have to exaggerate, I’m happy to be here”.
The comedian met the pontiff to give him a set of DVDs of his new show on the life of St. Francis of Assisi, titled “Francis, the Canticle”, which is being streamed on the Paramount Plus service.
Besides his comic works, Benigni, whose film “Life is Beautiful” won three Oscars in 1999, has also done shows on Italian epic poet Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy.