--- title: 6-Year-Old Boy Adorably Upstages Pope Francis at the Vatican description: Charming Wenzel Wirth totally upstaged Pope Francis and did the cutest things. We are blessed. canonical: https://time.com/5465664/boy-interrupts-pope-francis/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-28T17:06:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:56:13.122Z og:title: Adorable Boy Upstages the Pope at the Vatican and We Are All Blessed og:description: Wenzel Wirth disrupted the speech and charmed everyone og:url: https://time.com/5465664/boy-interrupts-pope-francis/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2872dae692053287/69894019656a3f5f17bd6160/popefrancisboy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Pope Francis Attends His Weekly General Audience og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Adorable Boy Upstages the Pope at the Vatican and We Are All Blessed twitter:description: Wenzel Wirth disrupted the speech and charmed everyone twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2872dae692053287/69894019656a3f5f17bd6160/popefrancisboy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Adorable Boy Upstages the Pope at the Vatican and We Are All Blessed > 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=4bbaf508-457b-4b62-8eb0-95da1fc64c6d&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Nov 28, 2018 5:06 PM UTC  Pope Francis and Archbishop George Gaenswein share a laugh as a child plays with a Swiss guard after getting up to the area where the pontiff was sitting during his weekly general audience, in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018\. (Photo by Massimo Valicchia/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Pope Francis and Archbishop George Gaenswein share a laugh as a child plays with a Swiss guard after getting up to the area where the pontiff was sitting during his weekly general audience, in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018\. (Photo by Massimo Valicchia/NurPhoto via Getty Images) NurPhoto—NurPhoto via Getty Images by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Nov 28, 2018 5:06 PM UTC An adorable six-year-old boy upstaged [Pope Francis](http://time.com/5428174/pope-francis-church-abuse-crisis-reaction/) during his general audience at the Vatican Wednesday. Luckily, the pontiff gave the young gentleman his blessing. “Let him be, let him be,” the [Pope](http://time.com/3631242/pope-francis-dogs-heaven-catholic-church/) told his Argentine-Italian mother as she [attempted to try and corral him off the stage](https://www.apnews.com/1efe40c95dd14725982f36702a2f3a32), according to the Associated Press. Play he did. Wenzel Wirth saw his window, and he ran with it. He scaled the stage where he successfully stole the spotlight from the pontiff as he pulled a stoic Swiss guard’s arm, sauntered around the podium, and rolled around onstage like it was his own personal playroom. “He’s free. Undisciplined-ly free, but he’s free,” the Pope said, per AP. “It made me think, ‘Am I so free before God?’ “When Jesus says we have to be like children, it means we need to have the freedom that a child has before his father. I think this child preaches to all of us. And let us ask for the grace of speech (for him).” Wirth’s father, Ariel Wirth, told the [Associated Press](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-boy/unruly-young-boy-upstages-pope-francis-idUSKCN1NX18J) that his son has speech limitations and behavioral issues, and “we try to let him be free.” Fortunately, almost everyone speaks the language of playful kids — especially, it seems, the pontiff himself. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5465664/boy-interrupts-pope-francis/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5465664/boy-interrupts-pope-francis/"},"headline":"Adorable Boy Upstages the Pope at the Vatican and We Are All Blessed","datePublished":"2018-11-28T17:06:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:56:13.122Z","description":"Wenzel Wirth disrupted the speech and charmed everyone","url":"https://time.com/5465664/boy-interrupts-pope-francis/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2872dae692053287/69894019656a3f5f17bd6160/popefrancisboy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2872dae692053287/69894019656a3f5f17bd6160/popefrancisboy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pope Francis Attends His Weekly General Audience","caption":"Pope Francis Attends His Weekly General Audience","creditText":"NurPhoto—NurPhoto via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"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/5465664/boy-interrupts-pope-francis/","name":"Adorable Boy Upstages the Pope at the Vatican and We Are All Blessed"}}]}] ```