Actress Whoopi Goldberg Brings ‘Sister Act’ Swag for Her Meeting With Pope Francis

After trying in vain to meet with Pope Francis for 11 years, famed Hollywood actor Whoopi Goldberg finally got a private audience with the pontiff on October 12, which she described as an “extraordinary experience.”

In an apparent reference to her excitement and nervousness, the veteran moderator of The View joked in the October 16 episode of the American talk show that she thought she would “walk into this building [at the Vatican] and I’m going to burst into flames.”

However, said Goldberg to her co-hosts on the show, Pope Francis turned out to be “exactly what I hoped he would be, which is a pope for all people, regardless of religion, which I really appreciated.”

Goldberg said the pope had asked her to bring him something related to Sister Act, a hit 1992 comedy film. In the film, she plays a nightclub singer who enters the federal witness protection program after to evade the mob after witnessing a murder. Goldberg’s character assumes the identity of a nun, Sister Mary Clarence and takes over direction of the convent’s choir, which becomes famous as a Motown ensemble under her direction.

Goldberg brought costumes and film merchandise with her. She recounted that the pontiff smiled and gestured toward the striking bright red stilettos, which starkly contrasted with her character’s dark and weighty habit, in the film’s poster image.

“Very interesting shoes,” the pope said. “You know,” Goldberg said jokingly in response, “I’m just trying to help bring the nuns into the 21st century. It was, it’s silly.”

The pope laughed. Speaking in Italian, which an aide translated, Pope Francis told Goldberg, “One of the best things you can do for people is to help them to have joy and make them laugh.” Quipped Goldberg: “I’m trying.”

The actress noted in the October 16 episode of The View that as a Catholic who attended Catholic school, the first pontiff she ever knew about was Pope John XXIII. She recalled that he was instrumental in helping the church to hold masses not in Latin but “in the language of the people.”

Comparing Pope John XXIII to Pope Francis, Goldberg pointed out that the pontiff “gets a lot of help from people because … he’s very progressive—he’s a human being, as it turns out … and he is doing his best to be a human for everybody.”

Goldberg said she wanted to thank the pope “for all of my gay friends and for all of my divorced friends, because he basically has said, ‘Well, listen, God loves you no matter—come back to the church.’ I appreciated that.”

“You know, I don’t know what any of it means,” observed Goldberg, referring to her encounter with the pope. “But I know that I feel better, because I feel like somebody up there likes me,” she said. “That’s the best way I can put it.”