The Pope celebrates grandparents (and Banfi). “Italy also has one: it’s Lino”

Rome, 27 April 2024 – Slightly alien photographs of the two of them are circulating together: cheerful beyond protocol, almost on the verge of a gag. The comedian of “I’ll break your nut” and the Pope who laughs. Lino Banfi and Francesco, conquered some time ago by that irreverent invitation: “Your Holiness, it’s my job: when you’re feeling a bit angry, let me call, I’ll take care of it.” She also called him yesterday at the “The caress and the smile” event in the Paul VI hall, where Francesco met a crowd of grandparents and grandchildren to reiterate that “love makes us better”.

Even friendship, though. Like the indecipherable one with the Apulian actor, 87 years old, both just six months apart, enough to authorize an actor to take confidences: “I’m from July and therefore older, for this reason the Holy Father owes me respect”. Thanks to the registry office and long television militancy in the role, Banfi is named grandfather of Italy, “almost like winning an Oscar”.

He immediately settles the perspective: “And I name the Pope, grandfather of the world”. Try to explain this bizarre brotherhood of the heart that increasingly brings them around a table to tell each other: how much love the suffering world needs, how much the Pontiff liked the film ‘Inspector Lo Gatto’ by Dino Risi, which begins with a crime in the Vatican and Banfi, investigating, lets slip a bit of philosophy: “Sometimes those who don’t understand anything are much closer to the truth, because they have no barriers.” Not even he, for example, understands how he became intimate with the vicar of Christ: “I don’t know, it happened – he repeated yesterday too -. But let’s let this thing grow. Because he too needs to smile every now and then. Believe me, the Pope’s life is not easy.” They took more and more pleasure in it: “The Holy Father made me understand that he likes me, we laugh a lot together. And they confirmed it to me: when you come, he is more serene”.

Banfi the Vatican’s secret weapon, Jorge Maria Bergoglio’s tiramisu. Abuelos both, posing in front of a lens not so much for posterity but because that’s what friends do. “Your Holiness, would you like a photo with me? But take away that stick you don’t need, we’re two kids.” Seven audiences, one more hilarious than the other: “The first I told him: I want to become the Pope’s jester. Now every now and then he calls me. And I tell him the funniest episodes of my life but also the sad ones. My dream has always been to make people laugh and cry together.” Reciprocity remains implicit.

When his wife died, Lucia Lagrasta, Lino Banfi received a letter of comfort from Bergoglio. It wasn’t the first correspondence between them. A year earlier the actor had asked for a meeting with the Pontiff for the 60 years of marriage, ancient promise made to his married girlfriend in secret: “This is a sad thing but don’t worry, if God gives us the strength to be together, then we will do something like princes. I want the Pope, I swear to you. Let me do it”.

First shock: a couple of jokes about Padre Pio. And then his Lucia’s request: “Since he is closer to the Eternal Father than us, ask him if he can make us die together because after so many years of marriage, how will one go on without the other?”. A friend takes note, then does what he can.