Pope's first children's book brings curious kids to Vatican

Pope Francis met a group of children who helped him write his first kids' book at the Vatican today.

The pontiff has penned weighty encyclicals and decrees, and now has taken a stab at the simpler side of his job with a book for children entitled "Dear Pope Francis".

The book was a brainchild of Fr Antonio Spadaro, a priest and editor of the Italian Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica who was the first person to interview Pope Francis after his election in 2013.

Fr Spadaro brought the pope the 31 drawings and questions by children from around the world and Pope Francis dictated his responses in simple language.

One of the queries was: "What did God do before the world was made?"

That question was put to him by eight-year-old Ryan K., from Canada. Like the other questions in the book, it was written above a simple drawing - in this case, Ryan's rough sketch of a bearded God standing on a globe surrounded by gold stars.

The pope's answer, written in a few sentences on the opposite page, was that God "created time" but that most of all "he loved".

At the meeting, one boy asked if it was easy being the pope.

"It's easy and it's hard. Like the life of any person. It's easy because you...