Leonardo Dicaprio Meets with Pope Francis to Talk about the Weather

It’s really gratifying when someone with real power takes time out of their busy day to speak with one of the little people about their beliefs. Sure, one party’s thoughts on an issue may amount to a hill of beans, but the dialogue is what’s important. So, it was extremely wonderful to find out that the great Leonardo DiCaprio took time out of his busy and worthwhile Oscar campaign to speak to a local religious leader about the challenges facing the environment.

DiCaprio was on hand at the Vatican on Thursday for a private audience with Pope Francis, who must have been so super grateful for the attention. According to reports, the two discussed a variety of topics, chief among them DiCaprio’s pet project: Mother Earth.

Over the course of the conversation, DiCaprio allegedly compared the problems facing the environment to “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” a painting by Dutch nut job Hieronymus Bosch. If you’ve never seen it, it looks like this. The painting — which is undeniably brilliant — also apparently hung above DiCaprio’s crib as a child, a revelation that begs the question, “Why isn’t DiCaprio more screwed up?”

At any rate, at the end of the conversation, DiCaprio gifted the pontiff with an envelope of cash for the Pope to donate to charities “close to your heart.” Something about the scene, the two icons meeting in a gilded room with lofted ceilings, attended by a mixture of silent servants wearing the conflicting garb of both religious devotion and Hollywood excess, has a real Godfather vibe to it, doesn’t it?