Whoopi Goldberg was missing from the set of “The View” because she was making a pilgrimage of sorts to Vatican City where she says she had an “exquisite” visit with the Pope.
As her co-hosts on the ABC daytime talk show revealed that her absence on set was due to a mystery project, the 67-year-old comedian and actress shared a series of Instagram Stories on her arrival and her “remarkable” experience with Pope Francis, even teasing a possible new movie venture that could be filmed on location at the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church.
The trip and commentary come a year after Goldberg made headlines for infamous comments made about San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone who had called for withholding Holy Communion from Rep. Nancy Pelosi because of her stance on abortion. Goldberg claimed that the church had no right to excommunicate Pelosi for her beliefs about abortion and claimed it’s “not your job” to keep morality in the church.
“The archbishop of San Francisco is calling for Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be denied Communion because of her pro-choice stance… This is not your job, dude. That is not up to you to make that decision,” she said at the time, earning a mountain of backlash.
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“Good morning! So we are in Rome at a fabulous hotel and we’re on our way over to Vatican City,” Goldberg said in one of the videos posted on Thursday. “Why? You’ll find out…”
“This is very exciting. I’m not really saying what we’re doing yet because I want to savor this experience,” she told her 1.3 million followers as the video clips showed her checking out of a Rome hotel, traveling to Vatican City, and even a clip purportedly in a car outside St. Peter’s Basilica.
“So, I’ve just had the most exquisite experience, which I’ll tell you about in a while but I’m getting in a Vatican car now because we’re going to see something that you’ll be able to see when we get back,” she continued.
Goldberg, who played Deloris Van Cartier/Sister Mary Clarence in the “Sister Act” films, teased that the next installment in the popular franchise could possibly be filmed on location.
“Maybe, since you’re seeing everything, you’re figuring out what I’m doing here,” she said in a video near the tourist hotspot.
“But picture Sister Act and all the nuns standing here, waiting for the Pope to come out,” she hinted. “Maybe that’s going to happen in the new movie. You don’t know. You never know, but we are in Rome, and I am in Vatican City. What could I be doing? Why could I be here? We’ll find out.”
Plans for “Sister Act 3” have reportedly long been in the works though producer Tyler Perry revealed that things were moving along when he appeared on “The View” last year.
“I loved the idea of us making this happen, but the Hollywood system moves a little slower than I’d like to,” he said. “We’ve got a good script. We’re off to a great start. We’re just trying to get everybody moving in the right direction to get it going.”
Goldberg finally revealed her big news of the day to her social media followers.
“So, remember I said I’m here and we’re looking at all these different things and I think I forgot to mention I met the Pope today. It’s pretty remarkable,” she said.
“Whoopi was received by the Pope on Thursday to view an exhibition, titled Changes, which highlights the dramatic impact of climate change,” Daily Mail reported. “She joked that she would gift the religious leader some bees as she thanked him for his message of inclusion.”
Goldberg has reportedly been waiting nearly 11 years to meet the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
“He is the first to have said it,” she said. “To have told people to ‘stop telling people that God doesn’t love them. Stop telling them not to come to Church.’ You may not agree, but we all know that God doesn’t make any mistakes.”