Pope Francis had a chance for a good chuckle during the general audience on Wednesday as a small boy broke through security and went to pull the sleeve of a Swiss guard on the podium metres away from the Pontiff.
It appeared the child was checking to see if the guard was real.
At one stage the boy was joined by a little girl, presumably his sister, who desperately tried to pull him off the stage.
As the child's mother joined the boy in front of the pope, a brief discussion took place and the mother explained her son was mute and unable to speak and Argentinian.
"He is Argentinian and unruly," a laughing pope said to his private secretary Georg Ganswein who was seated next to him.
"Leave him, leave him to play here," the pope said as the child rolled around in front of him on the carpet.
As the weekly audience continued the child was allowed to stay roaming around the podium.
''This child cannot speak. He is mute. But he can communicate. He knows how to express himself," Pope Francis said, addressing the audience.
"He is free, free and unruly. But he is free. He made me think of myself. Am I also so free in front of God?" the pope asked.
