Pope Francis smacks a woman's hand for pulling him towards her, later apologises
Pope Francis slapped a woman on her hand after she grabbed his hand while he was greeting pilgrims on New Year’s Eve at St Peter’s Square in Vatican City.
- World News
- 2 min read
Pope Francis slapped a woman on her hand after she grabbed his hand while he was greeting pilgrims on New Year’s Eve at St Peter’s Square in Vatican City. The 83-year-old Pope later apologised for it saying he lost his patience and had set a “bad example”.
In the video, the Pope can be seen walking through the square, trying to reach out to several small children. He paused for a moment to touch the hands of several small children waiting across the barrier, before heading towards a nativity display.
When Pope ended his brief meet-and-greet and tried to move towards the display, a woman grabbed his hands and pulled him violently. Pope, who tried to pull his hand away, appeared to grimace in pain. On failing to do so, he slapped on the woman’s hand who was trying to say something which was not audible. Later, Pope referred to the incident and apologised for his “loss of patience”.
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Social media divided
The video started making rounds on the internet and social media, which was divided over the behaviour of the Pope. One section was of the view that Pope went too far and should have handled the situation calmly.
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“I think so. She looks and sounds like a woman in need of compassion… imagine being slapped by Jesus Christ. To many Catholics the Pope is Christs emissary...This Pope behaves like Christs adversary (sic),” commented a user.
“The lady wanted the popes blessing and was probably desperate. The pope should know this from experience, how people beg for blessings/forgiveness etc and should have done his job —give her a blessing but instead, he hits her. Very ugly reaction by the pope (sic),” wrote another user.
But some users argued that the Pope was just being reactive like a normal human being. “Im not a fan of the Pope, however I probably would have had the same reaction if someone yanked my arm like she did ,I think it was reactive (sic),” a user opined.