Pope Francis apologized for slapping a woman’s hand on New Year’s Eve, using it as an example of how anyone can lose patience during his New Year’s Day address in Vatican City. The Pontiff slapped a woman’s hand when greeting children and pilgrims at St. Peter’s Square. He mentioned the incident during a portion of his speech denouncing violence against women.
“Love makes us patient,” Pope Francis said during his speech Wednesday, reports CNN. “So many times we lose patience, even me, and I apologize for yesterday’s bad example.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
“Women are sources of life,” the pope continued. “Yet they are continually insulted, beaten, raped, forced to prostitute themselves and to suppress the life they bear in the womb. Every form of violence inflicted upon a woman is a blasphemy against God, who was born of a woman.”
On Tuesday, the pope was greeting people who traveled to St. Peter’s Square to see him during his New Year’s Eve procession. The pope shook hands with one woman and quickly turned his face to the camera to greet a group of children. However, the woman did not let go and pulled him back. Pope Francis appeared to panic and slapped the woman’s hand to break free.
Many online critics turned their attention to the pope’s security, noting that they should have been quicker to respond to the woman’s behavior.
“It’s the Pope’s security team who should be apologising,” the founder of Italy’s elite special police interntions unit told the AGI news agency. “The lady wouldn’t let go of the Pope’s hand, and he was forced to slap her hand a little bit in order to get out of the way… But it shouldn’t have gotten to that point.”
Elsewhere in his speech on Wednesday, Pope Francis sent a message to the victims of “injustice and explotiation,” assuring them the church should receive them with open arms.
“To those who are victims of injustice and exploitation and see no way out, Jesus opens the door of fraternity, where they can find welcoming faces, hearts and hands, where they can share bitterness and despair, and recover some dignity,” the pope said, reports Vatican News.
The pope also included a hopeful message for the new year.
“For the year 2020 the Message is this: ‘Peace as a journey of hope,’ a journey in which progress is made through dialogue, reconciliation and ecological conversion,” he said, later adding, “Thus the year that begins will be a journey of hope and peace, not through words, but through daily gestures of dialogue, reconciliation and care for creation.”
Photo credit: Grzegorz Galazka/Archivio Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images
