Don King to meet the Pope!

By Lisa Scott

On March 21, His Royal Hairness - Don King will have an audience with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in Rome Italy. "I am standing in the need of prayer," King told Page Six yesterday from Paris where he is promoting the cruiserweight rematch between O'Neil Bell and Jean-Marc Mormeck. The colorful promoter added, "I'm going to ask the pontiff to pray for all of us. He has a direct line to the man who sits high, looks low and keeps his eye on the sparrow.” King, who is a Baptist (and not a Roman Catholic) said he doesn't believe there should be any quibbling between denominations.

"We're all going before the man on high on Judgment Day," King declared. The papal meeting came about through Luca Messi, a junior middleweight who fought on a card promoted by King in Chicago in 2005. Messi has a brother who is a priest and who agreed to set up an audience with the Pope. Before his pilgrimage to Rome, King will be honored at a festival in Bergamo, Italy, the Messi brothers' hometown. King, who owns three large, diamond-encrusted crucifixes - "for the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost," wore a floor-length white mink coat to President Ronald Reagan's first inauguration. But asked what he'll wear to his meeting with Benedict XVI, King humbly replied, "I'll see what the protocol is."


Evil Note: Its a sign of the apocalypse!