As leader of the Catholic Church you can pretty much celebrate your birthday in any way you want and Pope Francis’ choice of celebration definitely did not disappoint. In an interview with Mexican television station, Noticieros Televisa, back in 2015, Pope Francis stressed that he just wanted to go out into the city for pizza. So are we surprised that the leader of the Catholic Church chose to threw a gigantic pizza party to commemorate this special day? His holiness, who turned 81 on December 17th was presented with Italian pizza 4 metres in length, which is roughly the length of a Volkswagen Beetle, fact fans.
However, he didn’t keep the pizza all to himself (especially seeing as greed is definitely one of the Cardinal sins). Instead children from a local catholic pediatric clinic were invited to share in his special day, helping His Holiness blow out his birthday candle and eat the four metres worth of pizza, which he said would make them grow.
During the party, he was also presented with a birthday cake and advised the children attending not just to speak with God, but to also speak with and care for their grandparents, because according to him, grandparents 'give roots to children.' This is, I think you'll all agree, excellent advice.
Later that day thousands gathered in the heart of Vatican City during the weekly blessing for the opportunity to wish Pope Francis a Happy Birthday. Tens of thousands of people sang to the Pontiff and according to tradition, the children held up little statues of baby Jesus from their nativity scenes at home for Pope Francis to bless.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.