ROME
Crux
Inés San Martín February 4, 2017
VATICAN CORRESPONDENT
ROME- On Saturday, posters appeared around Rome featuring a stern-looking Pope Francis and asking “Where’s your mercy?” The unsigned images referred to the “decapitation” of the Knights of Malta and other actions Francis has taken against groups and individuals perceived as conservative.
“Ah Francis, you’ve taken over congregations, removed priests, decapitated the Order of Malta and the Franciscans of the Immaculate, ignored Cardinals… but where’s your mercy?” it reads.
All around the Vatican in Rome, but also in several other venues, many of the posters were quickly removed or covered by another, smaller one that said they were “Illegal Postings,” but by then the impression had already been made.
Though there’s no logo on the image, nor any clue as to who might be behind them, the content of the poster makes it clear that they come from conservative, if not traditionalist, quarters within the Catholic Church, many of whom feel ostracized, ignored and even attacked by the more progressive Argentine pontiff.
For instance, by talking of a decapitation of the Order of Malta, they mean Francis’s decision to interfere in the firing of the Grand Chancellor by the Grand Master and American Cardinal Raymond Burke.
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