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Trudeau makes pope smile -- a little

Pope Francis meets with Canada's Prime Minster Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau during a private audience at the Vatican. Photo from CP Images
Pope Francis meets with Canada’s Prime Minster Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau during a private audience at the Vatican. Photo from CP Images

New photographic evidence seems to suggest that Pope Francis was happier to host Justin Trudeau than Donald Trump—but only slightly.

Prime Minister Trudeau and his wife, Sophie, visited the Vatican on Monday, less than a week after Trump dropped in on the leader of the Catholic church. Trump’s visit was overshadowed by a photograph taken at the meeting that showed the grinning president standing next to a remarkably dour-faced pope.

Naturally, the internet was waiting with baited breath to see if Trudeau would do a better job of impressing the pontiff, and the results were…mixed.

The Canadian Press released a photo pool containing 19 images. As Mary Gazze of CP tweets, the pope is smiling in six photos, laughing in two, frowning in two and wearing a neutral expression in the remaining nine.

A success? A meme-worthy failure? It’s being reported both ways. Mashable ran with the headline, “The pope doesn’t look happy to see Justin Trudeau, either,” while the Toronto Star tweeted the following:

James McLeod summarised much of the social media chatter with the following tweet:

Lets just be grateful Trudeau has yet to partake in the glowing orb photo op.