Comedian "Foresees" a Female Pope and Francis Kisses Him

Italian comedian Roberto Benigni addressed participants in the Vatican's "World Children's Day" on 26 May in St Peter's Square, in the presence of Francis.

He said: "Among you there may be a new Michelangelo or a new Galileo (...) And among the girls there may be a future Nobel Prize winner (...) or even a Pope".

He added: "Anything is possible here, in the Vatican we are in the Kingdom of God, and in the Kingdom of God anything is possible. Maybe an African or an Asian [...] or a girl, a woman, the first woman pope in history, it would be talked about even on the moon".

Francis embraced and kissed Benigni on stage, although everyone had been forbidden before the event to approach Bergoglio.

A few years ago, Benigni hosted a Saturday prime-time show on Italian television that consisted of rifling through men's flies or groping up guests' skirts. He also made improper references to saints such as Padre Pio.

In 2007, he mocked the Madonna by changing Dante's 33rd Canticle on Paradise with vulgar terms which are used for the female and male genitals.

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