Disgruntled Pope Francis slaps hand of woman who grabs him; later apologizes

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When a number of people kiss the ring…same reason why we wipe the rim of the Chalice.
 
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You are right, the woman with the fur hood to the left of the smaller woman reached out for the Pope’s hand 1st and the smaller woman then held on to it. It surely hurt the pope because the taller woman’s hand was on his wrist. I however do not think they intended to hurt him. But they should have been more respectful and understood he wanted to greet only children.
 
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@Minks is right. There is a 3rd hand on the pope’s wrist which is bigger and probably belongs to the woman on the left of the asian woman. That is probably why the Pope was visibly so upset and in pain and had to slapp himself off the grip of both women
 
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7_Sorrows said:
I think you are mistaken. After rewatching the video, the hand clearly belongs to the woman.

@Minks
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@7_Sorrows

Zoom in and pause. Before Pope Francis gets to them but turns away, you can easily see that the hand that reaches and jerks Pope Francis does not belong to the petite woman. That person to the left of the petite woman (to our right) does not let go of him. While you’re in the close-up, look at the angle of that hand that jerked him. The petite woman would need to be more than double/jointed, and the skin color and hand size are not a match.

My iPhone makes visible the creases above the pressure of the person’s fingers digging into him. That would have to be deliberate. The person still crimped fingers into Pope Francis’s flesh after he stepped/was pulled near the wall, instead of letting go. That had to have been deliberate.

When I was a kid, bullies would grab their targets like that and very quickly make them fall to the ground, not releasing until the victim said whatever the bully demanded.
 
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I had some self-defense classes, but in order to jerk someone you needed different distance than existed between the petite woman and Pope Francis. I was impressed that she could do that so effortlessly, so I zoomed in and paused several times. Before that, I’d probably watched it at normal speed maybe 6-8 times, and each time thought that it was the petite woman. I hadn’t even noticed the person to her left (our right). Watch that person constantly. After maybe 20 times of watching the video . . . Notice that I refer to that person now as a person.
 
Weserthy said:
His security team seemed slow to react but I wouldn’t be surprised if Pope Francis has given them standing orders to go easy on even aggressive pilgrims, so they might have just been following orders during this incident.
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If you want to find somebody being visibly reactive or over-reactive, find volunteer ushers at a local parish.

The Pope’s security team are professionals. Just because they weren’t visibly reactive or didn’t have surprised expressions on their faces doesn’t mean they weren’t completely aware of everything happening around them. They know the Pope is being watched and scrutinized by millions.
 
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We saw someone not too far from us jump the barrier into the path of the Pope mobile at a general audience in 2015. His feet had barely hit the ground when two Swiss Guard members quickly and forcefully removed him. Seems security was a tad slow on this one.
 
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Seems the security did an outstanding job of saving face and a bonus might be in order.
 
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It’s fortunate his instincts as a former bouncer didn’t kick in. :crazy_face:
 
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The man next to her does appear to reach out to him, but she still appears to be the one who pulls him back. The person behind the Pope quickly walks up to
her and grabs her hands and looks at her. The Pope has just wrenched himself free.

@Minks
 
Zoom in and pause. Start watching that hand of the person to the left of the petite woman (our right) before the Pope turns away. Decide for yourself.
 
If I come to any of you and grab you and pull you to the point where you may be in pain, I’ll be very surprised if you act differently.

Don’t forget, this was a spur of the moment reaction. Let’s be more understanding. He’s not speaking bad of her now, he’s being humble. Totally right.
 
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Boy, seeing this makes me glad I do not have the media taping me 24/7…
Let’s not forget the popes age…he is 83…and has just been forcibly pulled at.
I am 53 and grumpy, I cannot imagine my reaction… 😱
 
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That woman seemed to pull the Pope toward her. It was scary and unusual. She could have had a knife in the other hand or something. I don’t blame Pope Francis for reacting the way he did.
 
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It was clearly a knee jerk reaction and he’s only human. It’s a scary thing not knowing who is going to come at you and what their intention is, even with a team of body guards. Especially as an 80 plus year old person. He’s apologised, time to move on.
 
Personally I think it was because it all happened so quickly.

I wonder if in the Popes mind could also sometimes be concern that he could receive an assasination attempt like was perpetrated on Pope JP 2?

Unfortunately, his reaction has given people who are already very negative about anything catholic or to do with religion more fuel.
There are a lot of very harsh comments on websites like Dailymail about him…

It seems people that are very negative to Catholic Church are hard to reason with and just want to feel that way. I don’t know if it’s because they are hurt or what is the reason.
It would be nice if they were at least open to different explanations?
 
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It was inappropriate/over reaction but maybe he had some sort of fight or flight response as it seems out of character for him?

Imo it would be reading too much into things to assume she has a mental illness.
It’s very possible that she just comes from an environment where you have to “fight for things” and be pushy because theres a lot of people you have to compete with and maybe this mindset has overflowed to this situation with the Pope and her eagerness to get a greeting from him.

It was sad to see her disappointed/disheartened face but at the same time she really shouldn’t have grabbed him at his age.
 
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Maybe our old traditions had some wisdom to them.

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