Pope Francis apologized on Wednesday for smacking the hand of a woman who pulled him towards her as he greeted a crowd in St. Peter’s Square.
A video had earlier surfaced on the internet showing Pope Francis, 83, smiling and holding hands with a group of people behind a barrier as he made his way towards the Vatican’s Nativity scene.
A woman stretched out her hand as the pope approached her, and when he began to turn away, she grabbed his hand and pulled him sharply toward her.
In order to break free from her clutches, the Pope smacked the woman’s hand and walked away in anger.
The woman is yet to be identified.
Pope Francis reacted to the video, saying he lost his patience and set a bad example.
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This comes after Pope Francis used his first homily of the new year to denounce violence against women, which he compared to profaning God.
He said “So many times we lose patience. Me, too,
“I say ‘excuse me’ for the bad example.”
Pope Francis had used the service to issue a forthright condemnation of the abuse of women in modern society.
He said: “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”