Boris Johnson tells Pope ‘don’t worry about the C-charge’
12 April 2012
Boris Johnson made the Pope smile when he promised to exempt the Popemobile from the congestion charge.
The Mayor boarded the papal plane — dubbed Shepherd One — when it touched down at Heathrow airport last night. Accompanied by one of his daughters, Mr Johnson had a brief audience with the Pope, during which he told him his motorcade would be exempted from the £8 weekday charge.
The conversation was in English, though Mr Johnson also speaks Italian and Latin. The Mayor gave the Holy Father a copy of his history of the Roman empire, To Dream Of Rome, as well as a book on the history of Christianity — Marking the Hours: English People and their prayers 1240-1570 — and another on the history of the papacy, called Saints and Sinners.
