Did you hear the one about the two popes?
Pope Francis and his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict, knelt side by side in prayer at Castel Gandolfo south of Rome yesterday — marking the first time in history a pope and a former pope have ever met face to face.
The newly installed Francis choppered from the Vatican to the compound where Benedict has been living since he shocked the world by announcing he would step down as of Feb. 28.
When they entered the chapel inside the palazzo to pray, Benedict tried to direct Francis to the papal kneeler at the front of the chapel, but Francis refused.
“No, we are brothers,” Francis humbly told him, according to a Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.