Francis puts a new sign on his door: 'No whining'

Rome — Pope Francis has placed a new sign on the door of his room in the Vatican's Domus Sanctae Marthae hotel. "No whining" it reads, warning that 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," the sign advises, 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."

The pontiff's choice for entry decor was first reported Friday by Italian news site Vatican Insider, which received a photo of the sign on Francis' door from an elderly Italian priest who had recently visited the pope at his room.

Vatican Insider reports that the sign is an invention of Italian psychologist and psychotherapist Salvo Noe, who gave it to Francis while greeting him after his June 14 weekly audience.

[Joshua J. McElwee is NCR Vatican correspondent. His email address is jmcelwee@ncronline.org. Follow him on Twitter: @joshjmac.]