马修·麦康纳梵蒂冈会见首位美国籍教皇

Last Wednesday a photo came out of the Vatican and travelled fast.

The frame is simple: Matthew McConaughey shaking hands with the Pope, his wife Camila standing beside him, smiling.

But the reason it kept getting reposted in America is that both men in the handshake are American.

McConaughey needs no introduction: Oscar winner, famous for over twenty years, recognisability maxed out.

The real variable is on the other side.

The current Pope is Pope Leo, the first American-born pope in the history of the Catholic Church.

The seat has existed for more than a thousand years, held throughout by Europeans, and never by an American.

Over a billion people worldwide are Catholic, so for American Catholics this is not a spectacle — it is finally their turn.

There is a commonly misread detail about the meeting itself: he did not pull any private strings.

The Pope holds a public audience every Wednesday, anyone can attend, and there are usually tens of thousands of people present.

The McConagheys were among them; afterwards they stepped up, said a few words, shook hands and took a photo — under a minute in all.

So why make the trip at all?

Half sincerity, half convenience.

The sincere half: he has spent these years talking openly about faith.

Last year he published a book, all poems he wrote himself, on the subject of how a person faces uncertainty.

The convenient half is more practical: he is currently in Italy shooting a new Netflix film with Zoe Saldana, and the location is not far from the Vatican.

In the end this is not an important news story: no policy, no conflict, just two people shaking hands.

But it spread because it hit two things at once — an actor everybody recognises, and a pope who is finally an American.

Think about it: given one minute to meet anyone in the world, who would it be, and what would your first sentence be?