Romans woke up last Saturday to a disturbing sight. Posters featuring a stern-looking Pope Francis had been plastered all over the historic city centre. “Ah Francis,” they said in Roman dialect, “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?” Workers swiftly took down the notices or covered them with “illegal advertising” signs, but not before they had sent a jolt through the Catholic world.