Pope Francis was unfazed by a little boy who ran onstage: "Let him play here," he said.
So what is the pope to do when a little boy rushes his stage and steals the show?
Ignore the child and let him play, it seems.
At Wednesday's public audience in the Vatican, Pope Francis got a good chuckle out of a small boy who managed to breech security and run up the stairs to where the pontiff was seated in his big chair.
The boy first went up to a Swiss guard and tugged on his uniform, apparently trying to see if the stoic soldier was real. Then he ran around the pope and tumbled on the floor.
His mother came up at one point, and told the pope her son was mute and from Argentina, as is the pontiff. "He is Argentinian and unruly," the laughing pope told his private secretary, who was seated next to him.
"This child cannot speak. He is mute. But he can communicate. He knows how to express himself," Pope Francis told the audience.
"Leave him, leave him to play here," he said as the boy roamed around the massive stage.
At another point, a younger girl, perhaps his sister, ran onstage and unsuccessfully attempt to drag him away. He broke free and kept strolling.
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