“It’s lonely at the top”, even for the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis; but being at the top does have its perks, such as hand-delivered hand-made pizza pie.
The Pontiff recently complained earlier this month that one thing he dislikes about being Pontiff was that he could never enter into a pizzeria of his choice and get a pizza without being recognized. But one Neapolitan sympathizer met with the Pope and did the unthinkable, running towards the illustrious “pope-mobile” and handing the Pope a homemade pizza pie.
Not just any pizza pie, but one fit for a Pope, with the words “Il-Papa” spelt out in dough on top.
A video on YouTube shows Mr. Enzo Cacialli, co-owner of Pizzeria Don Ernesto, running past the barricades, excitedly handing off the pre-made Pope pizza pie in hand to the Father.
“Papa! Papa!” he exclaimed as he ran towards the open topped car, a change in vehicle choice Pope Francis had decided on earlier in the previous year. Though the vehicle now may be a security liability, The Pope had stated earlier that he did not want to be in a “sardine can” walled off from his people, despite dangers from any assassination attempt.
Much to the frustration of his security officers, Pope Francis has since used an open topped style car rather than the bulletproof enclosed vehicles used by his predecessors like Pope Benedict XVI. This after the historic attack when would-be assassin Mehmet Ali Agca tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II by gun wounds in Peter’s Square, Rome on May 13, 1981.
“It’s true that anything could happen, but let’s face it, at my age I don’t have much to lose,” he told Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia in an interview published Friday and reported on in English by Vatican Radio.
“I know that something could happen to me, but it’s in the hands of God.”
But this time Pope had nothing to worry about except what toppings he wanted for his hand-crafted pizza pie.
The video shows the Pope reach down and accept the offering, as Cacialli ran uninterruptedly by Papal Security towards the Pope, who accepted the offering, followed by the pizza marker fist pumping enthusiastically.
“I gave him the pizza and with a smile he said ‘thank you,'” Cacialli told CNN.
