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Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on Monday met Pope Francis at the Vatican.
The chief executive of the social media site and his wife, Priscilla Chan were granted a personal invitation to the Vatican to meet the Pope during their sojourn in Italy.
One topic of discussion at the meeting was “how to use communication technologies to alleviate poverty, encourage a culture of encounter, and make a message of hope arrive, especially to those most in need,” Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said.
During the meet, Zuckerberg gifted the Pope a replica of the Aquila drones that Facebook is developing to beam Internet to places without connectivity.
“We gave him a model of Aquila, our solar-powered aircraft that will beam Internet connectivity to places that don't have it,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. “And we shared our work with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to help people around the world.”
The social media entrepreneur's tour of Italy also included a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in the aftermath of the Amatrice earthquake which left 281 dead.