The president suggested Catholics, who have criticized the apparently A.I.-generated image, were not offended, and said that anyone who was “can’t take a joke.”

Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers.

The president shrugged off backlash to an artificial intelligence-generated image that depicted him as the pope. One expert in religious studies weighs in.