
In a typical toddler escapade, one little girl has got the whole world - including the Pope - belly laughing.
Three-year-old Estella Westrick from Atlanta, Georgia, was enjoying her first day out in Rome with her family, having secured a front row position to view Pope Francis. She was with her godfather Mountain Butorac when a security guard approached and asked if he could hand her to the Pope. Butorac agreed and filmed the girl being passed to His Holiness.
The Pope gave her a kiss on the cheek - then she boldly plucked his cap, known as a zucchetto, clean off.
Pope Francis laughed at her toddler antics as he gently retrieving it from her hands.
Butorac posted the humorous video to Twitter with the caption, "Took my Goddaughter to meet the pope. She stole his hat!"
Took my Goddaughter to meet the pope. She stole his hat! pic.twitter.com/SdSorop3uN
— Mountain Butorac (@MountainButorac) March 22, 2017
Today that in his 12 years of running day tours in Rome and Catholic pilgrimages, he has never seen such a thing happen.
He also toldButorac says the pontiff and his entourage were laughing about the funny incident for quite a while as they continued their stroll to meet the attendees for the weekly Papal Audience event.
Having viewed the pope's official photographer images, it was quite clear Estelle had hatched a plan the second she laid eyes on him. (See the official photos on the website L'Osservatore Romano).
"You can see that as they brought her, she was kind of staring at the hat," he said. "So as the pope was going in to kiss her, she was already eyeballing it and her hand was starting to move up. It was like she went in with a plan."
