Pope Francis did it again, and this time round publicity managers of U.S. President Donald Trump may claim that it is not only the U.S. president who was given a glum face. It turns out that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also got the same serious face from the leader of the Catholic Church. Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, who are Catholics, visited the pontiff at the Vatican on Monday. He had a photo taken similar to the one that Trump had. His wife also wore a black dress and a veil, although the couple had big smiles for the photo.
Photo leads to more memes
Mashable wrote that it thought the Pope Francis was just sad when he met Trump and his wife and daughter. But it noted that the Canadian PM and his wife also failed to elicit a bigger smile from the pope that led to memes on the pope’s facial expression which observers said was happier when he met then U.S. President Barack Obama. The website raised the question if the pope does not like smiling for photos with world leaders. But DanJusDan believes maybe Pope Francis is still getting over his meeting with Trump. Some like Stephano referred to such glum look as the “resting Pope’s face.”
Catholic Church apology to indigenous Canadian people
Trudeau also urged Pope Francis to visit Canada, Reuters reported.
He wants the leader of the Catholic Church to apologize on behalf of the Church for its treatment of aboriginal children in schools run by Catholic priests in Canada in the late 19th century.
Although these schools were funded by the Canadian government, it was operated by Christian churches, and the majority were run by Catholics.
About 150,000 aboriginal children, or 30 percent of the native people, lived in residential schools where there were a lot of physical and sexual abuses committed, according to the 2015 report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
The Canadian government then sent the native children to the schools to remove their traditional cultures and ancestral languages.
The commission described the practice as a cultural genocide. The papal apology was among the 94 recommendations made by the commission for the role of the Church in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of the aboriginal children.
An apology from the pope will help Canadians move forward on real reconciliation with the indigenous people, the Canadian PM said. Trudeau added that he and Pope Francis also discussed climate change which they both agree is caused by human activity, unlike Trump who believes otherwise.
