Justin Trudeau's 'Resting Pope Face' Photo Goes Viral on Social Media
A photo of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alongside a pouting Pope Francis is making its rounds on social media, the latest "Resting Pope Face" image with a world leader.
Trudeau met with the head of the Roman Catholic Church on Monday, with a photo going viral on social media showing the pope with the same dour expression he had when he took a photo with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Conservative Canadian social commentator Ezra Levant gave his own explanation on Twitter for why Trudeau got the so-called resting pope face.
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"Bans pro-life Catholics from running as Liberal candidates. Smears pro-life opponents as immoral. Takes a selfie with the pope. #hypocrite," posted Levant, whose tweet as of Tuesday morning got over 1,274 retweets and more than 1,586 likes.
Trudeau's meeting reportedly involved the Canadian leader and professed Catholic asking the pope to make a formal apology for the Church's involvement in a program that forced indigenous children to abandon their cultural roots.
"Starting in the late 19th century, about 30 percent of children of Canada's native peoples, or about 150,000 children, were placed in what were known as 'residential schools' in a government attempt to strip them of their traditional cultures and ancestral languages," reported Reuters.
"For over a century, the schools were government-funded but many were administered by Christian churches, the majority by Roman Catholics."
Last week, Trump garnered much social media attention when he and his family posed with Francis at Vatican City, with the pontiff having a sad expression on his face.
Dubbed the resting pope face, many saw it as an indicator that Francis was not happy to meet with Trump and his family due to the president's controversial immigration policies.
Both Trump and Trudeau have photos of them with the pope where the religious leader looks happier, with some denouncing the social media furor as being out of context.
While a professed Catholic, Trudeau has garnered many headlines for his positions that run contrary to Church teaching, including large-scale public funding of abortions and championing a hate speech law that would criminalize criticism of transgenderism.
