Vatican City - US news magazine Time has left out Pope Benedict XVI from its list of the world's 100 "Most Influential People," but far from being piqued, the Vatican has welcomed the pontiff's exclusion. "I am very pleased that the Pope is not on the list because the criteria used are totally extraneous from an evaluation of the religious and moral authority of the pontiff," Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said Friday.
"It is difficult to draw comparisons and compile a list with such heterogenous characteristics: there are actors, tennis players and so on," Lombardi said.
He was referring to Time's fifth annual list of what the magazine describes as "the world's most influential people: leaders, thinkers, heroes, artists, scientists and more."
Topping Time's compilation is another religious figure, the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, who the magazine includes in its "Leaders and Revolutionaries" category.
He is followed at No 2 by outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin, while another religious leader, the Orthodox Christian Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, also makes the list at No 11.
Others included are celebrities such as Hollywood stars George Clooney and glamour couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie who are grouped in the "Artists and Entertainers" category.