--- title: Pope Francis Dog Photobomb Vatican PHOTO description: On Wednesday, Pope Francis was upstaged outside the Vatican by one very happy dog who appeared in photos as he traveled through the crowd. canonical: https://time.com/4521380/pop-dog-photobomb/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-06T18:26:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:37:24.611Z og:title: We Have Been Blessed With this Pope Francis Dog Photobomb og:description: One very happy dog made his presence known in this important photobomb. og:url: https://time.com/4521380/pop-dog-photobomb/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: We Have Been Blessed With this Pope Francis Dog Photobomb twitter:description: One very happy dog made his presence known in this important photobomb. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # We Have Been Blessed With This Picture of a Very Happy Dog Photobombing the Pope > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=9145936f-a3f3-410c-811f-fcb3463df10c&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 6, 2016 6:26 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 6, 2016 6:26 PM UTC Pope Francis [is used to appearing in photos](http://time.com/4238471/pope-francis-instagram/?iid=sr-link4); he is, after all, [one of the most famous humans on earth](http://poy.time.com/2013/12/11/pope-francis-the-choice/?iid=sr-link1), given to presiding over large public gatherings and posing for countless souvenir photographs with his reverent fandom. Sometimes, that fandom includes creatures of the canine persuasion. Sometimes, those animals are lifted on high to get as close to his papal glory as possible. And sometimes, those divinely-blessed dogs make for an epic photobomb as their tongues loll, blissfully basking in the Pope’s presence. At least, that’s what happened outside the Vatican in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday. It was a beautiful, sunny day in Rome, made all the better by this perfect capture of canine joy. The Pope was meeting with a dog training group in the square, [Metro UK reports](http://metro.co.uk/2016/10/05/pope-photobombed-at-vatican-by-grinning-dog-6174254/), and he also spent time with and blessed some of the other lucky dogs. > [](https://twitter.com/sreidy95/status/783995698509389824) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4521380/pop-dog-photobomb/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4521380/pop-dog-photobomb/"},"headline":"We Have Been Blessed With This Picture of a Very Happy Dog Photobombing the Pope","datePublished":"2016-10-06T18:26:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:37:24.611Z","description":"Blessed canine bliss","url":"https://time.com/4521380/pop-dog-photobomb/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4521380/pop-dog-photobomb/","name":"We Have Been Blessed With This Picture of a Very Happy Dog Photobombing the Pope"}}]}] ```