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"Honored to meet @Pontifex yesterday," the Tesla CEO wrote in a tweet posted on July 2, 2022.
Accompanied by four of his children, Elon Musk, the world's richest man whose fortune is estimated at more than $200 billion, greeted Pope Francis at St. Martha's residence. The meeting was not on the Pontiff's official agenda.
Visiting Italy, the billionaire released a photo of his private visit to Pope Francis, with four of his seven children present. According to the Italian press, the meeting lasted about 40 minutes but the contents of their exchange are not known.
The entrepreneur, a father of seven, put forward on his Twitter account a graphic about the decline in the number of births in the United States and he has often tweeted about low birthrates. This concern about demographics is a surprising point of convergence between the billionaire and the Pope.
The South African-born American billionaire, who is baptized an Anglican but defines himself as an atheist, was accompanied by 18-year-old Griffin and his 16-year-old triplets Damian, Kai and Saxon. Musk was married to their mother, Canadian author Justine Wilson, from 2000 to 2008.
Their first son, Nevada, was born in 2002 and died of sudden infant death syndrome at 10 weeks, reports the Daily Mail. The couple then had five children: twins - Xavier and Griffin, 18 - and triplets: Damian, Kai and Saxon, now 16 years old.
Absent from the meeting, Xavier announced last month that he has become a transgender woman and goes by Vivian Jenna Wilson, and no longer wanted to be associated with Musk.
"Please don't buy the Vatican!"
Musk, 51, is the CEO of several companies that have skyrocketed in recent years, including Tesla, a pioneer in electric cars, and SpaceX, a space exploration company with which he plans to colonize Mars. He claims that transferring part of humanity to Mars could become a long-term solution to overpopulation on Earth and global warming. He is also an ardent promoter of artificial intelligence.
A provocative and disruptive figure, Musk has also launched a takeover of Twitter, which is currently on hold. His statements on his investment projects are always closely scrutinized by the financial markets and his influence is now greater than that of many politicians.
"Please don't buy the Vatican!" one Twitter user quipped in reaction to Elon Musk's tweet about meeting the pope.
Pope Francis, who canceled a meeting the day before with the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations because of a flare-up of his knee pain, appears standing in the photo.
The Pope has received leaders of major companies on several occasions, including Google's Eric Schmidt on Jan. 15, 2016, Apple's Tim Cook a week later and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on Aug. 29, 2016. These meetings have often caused controversy because of the contradictions between the Church's social doctrine and the ideological positioning of these companies, particularly on issues of bioethics and tax evasion.
