A photographer gave Pope Francis a gift, it was a book of his pictures – of the previous Pope, John Paul II.

Spotting that the book was about his predecessor, the Pope grinned. “He was a saint, I am the devil!” He quipped.

“No, you are both saints!” Flung back the photographer, keen to ingratiate himself with the pontiff. But a truth had already been spoken. To those for whom the conservatism of the old Pope was orthodoxy, the move away from them is little short of diabolical.