“He’s godsend”: these are the words with which the Austrian Federal President, Alexander Van der Bellen, sent his wishes to Pope Francis for his eightieth birthday, falling on 17th December, as relayed today by the magazine of the archdiocese of Vienna, “Der Sonntag” (The Sunday), out on Sunday 18th. Speaking of Pope Francis, Van der Bellen pointed out that he has always been impressed “by his public statements and by his deeds”. Even if he has left the Evangelical Church and calls himself an agnostic, quite surprisingly last Sunday Van der Bellen went for a private visit to the national Marian sanctuary of Mariazell. On the magazine, the President’s article leads in to a number of pieces, in which several Viennese celebrities send their birthday wishes to the Pope. They include the financial manager of the archdiocese of Vienna, Josef Weiss, who pointed out that Pope Francis sets “the bar very high”, by speaking “to all people”. Weiss thanks the Pope for his encyclical “Laudato si’”, which “is a sort of model and inspiration for all those who have economic responsibilities within the Church and cannot lose sight of our planet, seeing it as a call to global rethinking in environmental management”.