Image from Mark Lambert
It has been announced over much of the Catholic blogosphere (e.g., see HERE and HERE). Rome has been covered in posters portraying an unflattering photo of Pope Francis above words in a Romanesque dialect criticising him for some of his many acts that have shocked the Catholic world, and finally asking him but where, then, is your mercy [for these cases]?
“Hey Francis, you police congregations, priests are removed, (you have) decapitated the Order of Malta and the Franciscans (Friars of the Immaculate), ignored Cardinals …
but where is your mercy?”
How will Pope Francis react to this? If he has not already exhausted his little store of insults, he will be finding some particularly juicy ones for the authors of this prank!
UPDATE
Conservative criticism intensifies against Pope Francis
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Conservative criticism of Pope Francis intensified Saturday after his intervention in the Knights of Malta order, with posters appearing around Rome citing his actions against conservative Catholics and asking: “Where’s your mercy?”
The posters appeared on the same day that Francis cemented his authority over the Knights by naming a top Vatican archbishop, Angelo Becciu, to be his special delegate to the ancient aristocratic order.
Francis gave Becciu, the No. 2 in the Vatican secretariat of state, “all necessary powers” to help lay the groundwork for a new constitution for the order, lead the spiritual renewal of its professed knights and prepare for the election of a new grand master, expected in three months.
The Vatican’s intervention with the sovereign group had provided fuel for Francis’ conservative critics, who until Saturday had largely confined their concern with his mercy-over-morals papacy to blogs, interviews and conferences.
On Saturday, dozens of posters appeared around Rome featuring a stern-looking Francis and referencing the “decapitation” of the Knights and other actions Francis has taken against conservative, tradition-minded groups.
Within hours, the city of Rome had plastered over the posters. Police launched an investigation into the conservative circles believed responsible, aided by closed-circuit cameras, the ANSA news agency said.
The posters, written in Roman dialect, also cited the way Francis had “ignored cardinals,” a reference to the four cardinals who have publicly asked Francis to clarify whether divorced and civilly remarried Catholics can receive Communion.
Francis hasn’t responded directly, though he has made it clear he favors case-by-case allowances.
[…]
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
I can’t be much sadder !! Everything is collapsing but ‘The Rock’ will remain as promised by God.
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Many of us have become so cynical about Bergoglio that we can’t say he doesn’t deserve this. Anyway, a French blog https://goo.gl/z3nB3R is reporting that employees of the City of Rome are working to remove the posters. It appears, though, that there are a large number of these items.
I suppose this whole incident goes to illustrate the fact that we live in a world where most people do not behave in a Christian manner. In other words, if you insult people, they’ll insult you right back.
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At least they didn’t use an unflattering snap of him.
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“(W)e live,” says Robert John Bennett “in a world where most people do not behave in a Christian manner.” Sadly, we live in a world in which the Pope himself all to often does not behave in a Christian manner. I have lost count of the number of times Pope Francis has chuntered on about the evil of gossip. And yet himself listening to gossip he unjustly orders the sacking of three priests from the CDF!
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So, according to the “update” above (and Robert’s link) police are launching an investigation to discover the instigators of covering Rome with these posters. Well, I (mischievously?) hope they don’t find them. After all, what has been their crime? They have done no more than state a glaringly obvious truth and asked a simple question!! A question most orthodox Catholics would like to ask the Pope.
Hillary White in her typical straightforward way has posted on Cardinal Ouellet’s reaction to the deed:
“Helpfully demonstrating the value of “conservatism,” former Primate of Canada and current Prefect of Bishops – whose “conservative values” have left him isolated in the Vatican – takes a moment to chastise the faithful and call them devil’s minions for having dared to ask the pope for genuine mercy.
Really? They’re not the methods we’re supposed to use?
What would your eminence suggest?
Dubia, perhaps? Formally submitted by the lawful authority and in accordance with the requirements of Canon Law?”
How’s that working out?”
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I can’t be much sadder !!
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Hope I’m not stepping on anyone’s toes, but this video sent to me from a friend is just so hilariously funny!
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kathleen, you ARE awful 😉 . But there are a few “home truths” (as they used to say in ye olde dayes) in there.
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“kathleen, you ARE awful 😉 .”
…And Kathleen’s not the only thing.
A laborious, dreary, vulgar, and turgid slice of lumpen imbecility.
Make Hitler of of Pope Francis? Sure, if it suits you. Doesn’t bother me, I’m an agnostic.
But, good luck to anyone who got any kind of laugh out of that.
And yet, some people, who are not completely half-witted, are complaining because our Bobby Jon persistently and merely calls him “Bergoglio.”
Oh, well.
(If that made anybody else laugh,or even smile – I’d be interested to hear of it.)
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