PHOTOS OF POPE Francis meeting Donald Trump in May last year show a stony-faced Pope beside a grinning president. Matteo Salvini, leader of the right-wing Northern League party and the interior minister in Italy’s new coalition government, has said he’s ready to meet the Pope “this week”. Expect the same doleful expression on the Pope’s face if they do.

While some seized on the photo of Francis with Trump as a sign of disapproval, the reality is that he doesn’t smile all that often when photographed standing next to leaders of this world. This is partly cultural and partly a self-protective mechanism as it communicates a “distance” – which some read as disapproval – between those who wield temporal power and the Church.