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Last week, the internet was ablaze with a portrait showing a grinning U.S. President Donald Trump standing next to a frowning, slump-shouldered Pope Francis.

While observers may have interpreted the scowl as a subtle dismissal of Trump, the Bishop of Rome actually makes it a regular habit to look absolutely miserable when posing alongside visiting dignitaries.

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Monday’s photo with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was no exception. As Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau cracked wide smiles in the Papal Library, Pope Francis once again dropped his hands to his sides and assumed an expression of bored indifference.

And according to veteran Vatican correspondent John Thavis, that’s all intentional.

“I think he’s trying not to smile,” said Thavis, former Rome bureau chief for Catholic News Service and author of the Vatican Diaries.

As Thavis told the National Post in an email that Francis is “acutely aware that a photo with a smiling pope has its own special value that goes well beyond nuanced Vatican statements on policy positions.”