Pope says hand-kiss recoil was 'question of hygiene'

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It was not a good look. It seemed very aloof and elitist.

It would have been a lot easier for the pope just to stop the process and friendly let his audience know how he would like people to address him and why.

It’s a difficult role, perhaps he was under stress at the time.
 
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How long has kissing a pope’s ring gone on, and now it’s a hygiene concern though? :confused:
 
It is the Pope’s right to say no to people kissing his hand or papal ring.

And who are we to judge. He may have immune compromised issues where illness can jealousies his health.
 
It was an odd response. Germs? This seems like the last Pope who would ever recoil at germs from the public.
 
That was the explanation but. That makes no sense if people also drink from the cup at communion.
 
I forgot about that since my parish has the the Communion Host dipped into the Blood.
 
I found this news on two local atheist and very proggressive sites even here in Romania. I think we should just let this go. This news has grown for the wrong reasons methinks. Ok so he was elitist and let only the religious people kiss his hand. Or he was just tired. Ok he made a mistake. We are tripping over ourselves in growing this news. We should put it to rest.
 
Any negative press to sling at the Pope.

He has many enemies in the Church.
 
I don’t think the cup is typically distributed to the laity in Rome. It’s not in much of the world as a matter of course.
 
True. I’ve been to several Masses in Rome where the Cup was offered. But none at a Papal Mass. The point stands though. If the Pope is concerned about hygiene then He should address CITH and reception of the wine. I dont think it was about hygiene. And that is too bad because he had an opportunity to say what it was about…
 
Have you ever seen the queue/the line to kiss baby Jesus’ feet in Christmas and how the feet are wiped after every kiss?
The Chalice is wiped after every communicant.
What should the Pope have ? Lysol wipes and somebody cleaning the ring after every kiss?
If he says it is hygiene,it is hygiene.
 
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Yeah, probably just occured to him in his sixth year of his pontificate… the only thing that would really make sense to me from a hygiene standpoint is if he saw, or felt some serious issues of someone who kissed his hand which then, to avoid embarrassing the person took it upon himself to take the heat for the gaffe. And that’s entirely possible and a charitable view. It was violent however. He recoiled. It was odd and curious. I just dont buy the hygiene angle because it isn’t a logical reaction. Nor in keeping with his reputation for being a very very approachable Pope. I think the immense pressure of a billion people worldwide allows him to be pardoned if he has a natural human reaction of just being overwhelmed. But perhaps a more detailed explanation was due. Or not. But the Vatican’s hygiene response was to me, patronizing.
 
Does anyone know who the group he was greeting was? I haven’t been able to narrow down who they were. I do find it patronizing since he allowed the religious to kiss his ring just a few days later.
 
See at 26 seconds here. . . .


Perhaps something has changed since then?
 
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LateranBasilica said:
It is the Pope’s right to say no to people kissing his hand or papal ring.

And who are we to judge. He may have immune compromised issues where illness can jealousies his health.
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I agree, but I also think that if the Pope did not want people in that particular audience kissing his ring, perhaps the people there should have been told, then the “controversy” could have been avoided, as well as the bad optics of him pulling his hand away.
 
Perhaps they were told?
I see a typo in my post. It should read jeopardise.
 
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