Our Pope is only human, but

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It has been a long-standing and lovely devotion for Catholics to kiss the Pope;s ring out of reverence and respect. There was a recent incident where he kept pulling his hand away when people tried to kiss his ring. He cited “hygiene” as a reason, and also said something about not having the time for it.

There was another incident when he slapped a lady’s hand away after she had grasped it and was holding onto it. He had an exasperated expression on his face as he walked away from her. He later apologized, admitting that he sometimes becomes impatient with people.

Our Pope is only human, and I understand he is somewhat of a liberal reformer, but these beloved traditions are part of what makes our Church so special and our Catholic teachings and practices so beautiful.

It’s a shame he doesn’t seem to appreciate that.
 
The Pope already showed humility by apologizing for the incident with the lady. I am sure he has probably already mentioned it in confession also. It’s time for us to let it go as well. It’s also not a “beloved tradition” for a Pope to shake hands or be pulled around by people in a public crowd, and indeed for most of history Popes were not readily accessible to being touched by the general public. Let’s also not forget he is a man in his 80s, not some young kid, and when somebody yanks him he could end up with a serious injury. . . .
 
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I think from the expression on his face, and his body language he WAS in pain when she grabbed him and yanked him back to her.

She’s lucky the guards didn’t tackle her.

Deacon Christopher
 
If a person has been informed not to do something (such as kiss the ring) and then they do it anyway, then they are only honoring themselves.

The Pope is a human being first and the Pope second.

I will repeat that: the Pope is a human being first and the Pope second. If another living human being doesn’t want you kissing their hand, then don’t do it.
 
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JanR said:
There was another incident when he slapped a lady’s hand away after she had grasped it and was holding onto it. He had an exasperated expression on his face as he walked away from her. He later apologized, admitting that he sometimes becomes impatient with people.
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This appeared to cause him a lot of pain. Watch the video of it, if you have not already. Look at the expression on the face of the Holy Father. It also likely scared him a little because he had turned to walk away and the woman randomly grabbed his arm /hand and dragged him to her.
No one would tolerate that. Why would our Pope have to tolerate it? It also shows a great lack of piety on her part. She would not let his hand go, he actually had to smack his hand away from her.
I admire the response of his bodyguards in calmly mitigating the situation and not addressing it more forcefully. She may have had a knife, a gun, a weapon, she may have been intending to assault him. They did not know at that point.
 
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That woman really grabbed his arm and he was unprepared for it.
He was caught off guard and had a very human reaction. He apologized for losing his temper.

It is time we move on from this.
 
His immediate reaction of him being yanked shows that it was pretty painful.

I’m a 21 year old yet my arm hurts when a friend pulls me like that.

Also, kissing the ring always seems really off to me. I don’t understand the tradition.
 
Pope Francis is not the first Pope to reject the very understandable impulse people have to give the Vicar of Christ the kind of reception that might be given to secular kings:

When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and, falling at his feet, paid him homage. Peter, however, raised him up, saying, “Get up. I myself am also a human being.” Acts 10:25-26

As for the woman who grabbed the Pope, I agree that she was out of line, but I thought his apology to her because he regretted how he had handled the situation was handled very well, because he made no excuses for himself. He gave a real apology.
 
^^ I completely agree. I don’t think it’s fair to say the Pope doesn’t appreciate tradition because he isn’t comfortable having a ring kissed or being grabbed by strangers.
 
A lot of people, especially women and especially older women as far as I saw, are very interested in the theory of Divine energies around priests and bishops, probably even Angels that are said to serve with us people in the Church. So they either want to kiss the priest’s hand like it was an icon or caress the priest’s back during the DL (I see this every time in church). Some priests and bishops are not very keen on these superstitios that seem to be “stealing a blessing” and I think they are entitled to say no. It’s not a Sacrament, it’s not like the priests aren’t serving you and your soul if they deny the kiss of hand, caressing etc.
Most priests let people do this, whether they like it or not, but some say no. Yanking the hand to kiss is not love or devotional it’s supersition and many times superstition leads to violence (like grabbing the Pope’s hand forgetting he is an old man etc).
 
I take no issue with much of the Holy Father’s response. We need to remember he is far more likely to be a target of an attack than most of us. We all remember St John Paul II being shot and the Christmas Eve a woman knocked Benedict XVI to the ground.

When the woman grabbed his arm he was not facing in her direction. He was bound to be shocked. She could easily have overbalanced him and caused him to fall. He would initially have had no way of knowing her intent. To pull back his hand from her was a normal, instinctive response.

We don’t know how much she tried to cling on to him or what she was saying. That’s maybe why the Holy Father resorted to slapping her. You have to wonder why there was no rapid response from his aides or security personnel.
 
JanR said:
but these beloved traditions are part of what makes our Church so special
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For you…
And at some point one wonders why it is so difficult to understand that it is already a whole lot for a man to accept being a Pope, that it is demanded that he is who he isn’t.
Who knows if he is following his spiritual father being St Ignatius or even St Francis …as Brother Jay used to explain.
I am personally no longer interested in finding out why this “ liberal reformer”, “ hippie style” , and these sort of images are stuck in the mind of some people, but it comes across as detached from him as it is the stiff and outdated impression many convey about Pope Emeritus Benedict. It is unreal. So it gets into the sphere of fantasy.
This is just an unimportant comment and post, but one wonders if the same change is demanded to a wife or a husband to become who they are not .
Irrelevant post mine is,not to get worked up .
 
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The Pope is a good man. There is a time and a place for everything. The lady who grasped the Pope’s hand should have let go.
 
Mary888 said:
So they either want to kiss the priest’s hand like it was an icon or caress the priest’s back during the DL (I see this every time in church).
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I have never seen anybody caressing the priest’s back during Mass. Maybe it is an Eastern tradition but I still find it very odd.
 
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JanR said:
It’s a shame he doesn’t seem to appreciate that.
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That woman could have been a security risk. Yanking him so he could have fallen and could have had a weapon. Maybe he could have just pulled his arm away but I have no problem with what he did.
 
JanR said:
but these beloved traditions are part of what makes our Church so special and our Catholic teachings and practices so beautiful.
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There never was a tradition of kissing the Pope’s ring unless he specifically held it out for you to do so. Grabbing the Pope’s hand and kissing his ring without his explicit permission was always a faux pas. No Pope would have been happy with anyone who did so, no only Pope Francis.
 
Lea101 said:
His immediate reaction of him being yanked shows that it was pretty painful.

I’m a 21 year old yet my arm hurts when a friend pulls me like that.

Also, kissing the ring always seems really off to me. I don’t understand the tradition.
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Kissing a ring is not “off”; it is a tradition showing respect for the office. No one can be faulted for that. It’s about the office, not the man, who is merely a holder of the office.

Gah, I wish Catholics would stop being so “offended” by the notion of ring-kissing. It shows what you believe about the divinely-instituted office of Bishop.

But back to the issue at hand. The Pope was yanked pretty violently. Pope or not, you do not do that to an octogenarian.

Slapping the hand was mild. She’s lucky the security team did not tackle her.
 
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