“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.”