Pope Francis was recorded slapping a woman’s hand away from him on Tuesday at a New Year’s Eve event at the Vatican. The religious leader was moving through St. Peter’s Square and greeting spectators when one woman grabbed onto him, as seen in a video published by Reuters. When she would not let go, Pope Francis slapped her hand off of him.
The pope was shaking plenty of hands on Tuesday in his New Year’s Eve procession in Vatican City. Footage from the event shows him approaching a group of children, then moving on down the line, greeting several people in the front. Just as he is about to reach one excited woman, he turns back towards the camera.
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The over-excited woman begins shouting to try and get the pope’s attention in the now-viral video. She goes so far as to reach out and grab his hand, not wanting to miss her chance to meet him. Pope Francis seems to panic, angrily slapping the woman’s hand to get free.
It was not clear what the woman was yelling, but the pope was not receptive regardless. Eventually, security stepped in to break up their altercation, and she seemed to wilt as he walked away. On social media, users were split over the strange encounter. Some thought that the pope was acting outside of the bounds of a religious figure, while others thought that he was well within his rights to fend off a perceived threat.
“Wonder if that’s what Jesus would do,” one person tweeted.
“Idk, but it’s what I would’ve done,” replied another.
“He’s a person. Not a God. I’m a Catholic. Maybe he had a painful shoulder or maybe he knew her from previous encounters and had enough. Point is, he’s human and an old man,” a third person wrote.
Pope Francis did not respond to the controversy, but he posted his own message for the new year on Tuesday morning in preparation for the celebrations. He included a link to the Vatican’s website, where a video of Tuesday’s service was available.
“Let us give thanks to God for His grace, which has sustained us in this past year, and with joy let us raise a song of praise to Him,” he wrote.
Pope Francis is the first leader of the Catholic church to come from the Americas, having been born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was raised to the Papacy in March of 2013.
