Rome woke up this Saturday with something quite new, and very old, in its streets: posters throughout the City (in the style of the old "pasquinate") critical of the Pope.
Ah Francis, you have intervened in Congregations, removed priests, decapitated the Order of Malta and the Franciscans of the Immaculate, ignored Cardinals... but where is your mercy?
These were common at the time of the Papal States (before the fall of Porta Pia and the full unification of Italy in 1870): not for religious reasons, but rather for political complaints, since the Popes were also the secular rulers of the Pontifical territories.
Since then, these public criticisms of Pontiffs mostly disappeared in the City, considering the new Italian authorities were now those responsible for the secular government of the old papal territories, and that the Pope remained responsible only for religious matters. They still show up all the time against Italian politicians.
But when, by common Roman consent, the most tyrannical Pontiff since the Renaissance still has the gall of speaking under the name of mercy (!!!!), the humor of the Roman people does not remain silent when faced with this charade.
[Reported by ADN Kronos, via Marco Tosatti; second image by Mark Lambert]
