Zuckerberg meets with The Pope, offers him a drone

As part of Mark Zuckerberg’s trip to Italy, the Facebook CEO and his wife, Priscilla Chan, sat down with Pope Francis.

Following the devastating earthquake that hit Italy last week, Zuckerberg discussed the importance of connecting people around the world without internet access. He spoke on his admiration of The Pope’s mercy, tenderness and progressive views on technology, especially as they pertain to communicating with people of every faith around the globe.

Zuckerberg then offered him a replica of its solar-powered drone, Aquila, designed to facilitate this sort of communication for unconnected — or under-connected — areas. Sadly, this one is affixed to a platform and not something you’ll see whizzing around The Vatican anytime soon.

While this drone is a flightless model, the actual Aquila drone should prove quite interesting to a Pope that uses social media channels like Twitter and Instagram to reach the youngest segments of his faith. Once the project is complete, the drone could provide internet access to the 1.6 billion people currently without it.