DiCaprio, Pope talk environment

VATICAN CITY — Actor Leonardo DiCaprio brushed up his Italian on Thursday to greet Pope Francis at the Vatican, where they discussed their shared concern over the environment. The star also gave the pontiff a check for his charitable works.

“Your Holiness, thank you for granting me this private audience with you,’’ DiCaprio said in Italian as he arrived in the Apostolic Palace and kissed the pope’s ring.

Later, in English, DiCaprio offered Francis a book of works by the 15th-century Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch, and showed him the reproduction of Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights’’ that had hung over his crib as a child. The triptych, which DiCaprio has referred to in the past, depicts Adam and Eve in the first panel, a teeming landscape in the center panel, and finally a vision of hell.

Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si (Praise Be) has been embraced by environmentalists for its denunciation of the world’s fossil fuel-based economy and its demand for greener energy sources.

DiCaprio, nominated for an Oscar for his role in “The Revenant,’’ is a longtime environmental campaigner. AP