Rome – Pope Francis apologised on Wednesday for angrily klapping a woman's arm when she had grabbed hold of his hand and pulled him towards her, saying he had lost his patience and set a “bad example”.
His unusual apology came after he used his first homily of the new year to denounce violence against women, which he compared to profaning God.
Pope Francis, 83, had a sharp encounter with a woman on Tuesday evening during a walkabout in St Peters Square.
The pilgrim, who has not been identified, unexpectedly pulled him towards her, causing him evident alarm. A clearly disgruntled Francis rukked himself los by klapping her arm.
The image of Francis slapping his way free from the clutches of the admirer was an instant hit on social media and a personal apology soon followed.
“So many times we lose patience, even me, and I apologise for yesterday's bad example,” the pope told thousands of pilgrims gathered in St Peter's Square on Wednesday at the end of the traditional New Year Mass.
Pope Francis apologised Wednesday for his widely-viewed klap of a woman who had grabbed his hand as he greeted Catholic faithful on New Year's Eve.
This evening after visiting the Nativity scene in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis loses his cool after being grabbed by a pilgrim who wouldn't let go of his hand. The Pope repeated slapped her hand and told her to let go of him. pic.twitter.com/6Qrgh8aZKz
— Catholic Sat (@CatholicSat) December 31, 2019
He had used the service to issue a forthright condemnation of the abuse of women in modern society.
“All violence inflicted on women is a desecration of God,” he told a packed St Peter's Basilica.
“How often is a woman's body sacrificed on the profane altar of advertising, profit, pornography,” he said, adding that the female body “must be freed from consumerism, it must be respected and honoured”.
Despite creating life, women “are continually offended, beaten, raped, forced into prostitution” and made to have abortions, he said. “We can understand our level of humanity by the way we treat a woman's body,” he told the congregation.