IT IS A STYLE that has thrilled and inspired millions: the informal, non-clerical, accessible Pope who, at the drop of a hat, is willing to baptise a sick child or marry a couple on board a plane. This Bishop of Rome, instinctively sceptical of systems and structures, believes the gold standard for a priest is his closeness to his flock rather than his efficiency as a church bureaucrat. It is a pastoral populism that has particularly appealed outside traditional Vatican circles.

A winning strategy up to now, it appears to have come unstuck in the handling of the case of the Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, accused of turning a blind eye to abuse.