Pope tacks ‘No Whining’ sign on his apartment door

VATICAN CITY (AFP) — Pope Francis carries the weight of the world’s poor and suffering on his shoulders: The last thing he needs is people turning up at his apartment for a whinge.

Vietato lamentarsi (no complaining) reads a sign in Italian hung on the door to Pope Francis’ private rooms

in the Vatican that was given to him by a psychologist, according to a religious expert close to the pontiff.

Psychologist Salvo Noe, author of motivational guides, gave it to Francis at the end of an audience on Saint Peter’s Square last month, journalist Andrea Tornielli said on the “Vatican Insider” website.

“I will put it up on my office door where I receive visitors,” the Pontiff is said to have promised with a smile.

But in the end he chose to hang it at the entrance to his modest living quarters in the Santa Marta hotel in the tiny state.

The Argentine often tries to buck up gloomy believers by telling them to cast off their melancholy and stop grumbling.

The sign’s small print warns offenders “are subject to developing a victim complex, resulting in a lowering... of their capacity to solve problems”.

“The penalty is doubled whenever the violation is committed in the presence of children,” it says, adding: “To be your best you have to focus on your own potential and not on your limits, so stop whining and act to make your life better”.

Pope Francis hasn’t lost his sense of humor despite the exit of top Vatican officials and some other negative headlines.

Francis has had no shortage of complainers in the Vatican and in the Church since his election in 2013. He has tried to steer the 1.2 billion-member Church on a more inclusive and merciful path, angering conservatives who say he his sowing doctrinal confusion. (With reports from AP and Reuters)