Want a picture with the pope? No need to fly to Rome!
Do you want to take a picture with the first Hispanic pope, but don’t see yourself heading to Italy anytime soon? You don’t need to…
Picture with the Pope. (Catholic United Financial)
Do you want to take a picture with the first Hispanic pope, but don’t see yourself heading to Italy anytime soon?
You don’t need to go all the way to Vatican City for that — just head on over to St. Paul, Minnesota.
SEE ALSO: 9 Reasons why Pope Francis deserves the Nobel Peace Prize
St. Paul, Minnesota is the home to one group that’s letting visitors take a picture with pope– or at least a cut out of him.
Picture with the Pope. (Catholic United Financial)
The company, Catholic United Financial, set up a Flickr account to showcase all these photos.
The account has over 6,000 photos most of them of people posing next to cardboard cutouts of Pope Francis.
The Catholic United Financial is a fraternal benefit organization serving more than 84,000 members in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Iowa.
They offer life insurance and retirement savings options for their members while allowing them the opportunity to impact their Catholic parishes, schools and community — and now a chance to take a selfie with the pontifex himself.
SEE ALSO: Positive views of Hispanic Catholics toward their church
Why do they do this?
The answer isn’t really certain. It could be a way to attract people to their events and offer them a special gift.
It could be way to bring in extra revenue (a ‘$5 for a picture with the pope’ kind of thing). Or it could be because they’ve got random cut-outs of the pope and couldn’t find any other way to use them.
Whatever the reason may be, whoever came up with this idea is genius.
But that’s not all! The cut-out isn’t limited to the sitting pope, it includes Pope Francis’ predecessor, Benedict XVI. BONUS!
Pope Francis’ predecessor, Benedict XVI. (Catholic United Financial)
For a full collection of the photos, visit the Catholic United Financial’s Flickr account.
