The Gospel According to Hollywood: Robert De Niro Meets the Pope

It was, as Vatican News put it with papal understatement, “a pleasure to meet you.” A handshake, a few words, a rosary. A Hollywood legend stands before the successor of Peter, the fisherman from Galilee who once fell on his knees and cried, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Robert De Niro, baptised a Catholic but long since adrift from the barque of Peter, has found his way once more into the Apostolic Palace. And the cameras were ready.
The story, of course, was framed as a feel-good moment: an American icon meeting the Pope. But what, exactly, does such an encounter signify? The Church is not a social club for the spiritually curious, and the papacy is not a photo opportunity. De Niro’s public life has often been a study in moral divergence from the faith he once received at baptism. He has spoken of God, if at all, as a cosmic defendant “If there is a God, He has a lot to answer for”, and lived in open contradiction to Catholic teaching on marriage, sexuality, and …