For some, the end of 2019 didn’t go quite as planned.

Pope Francis, for one, had to start the new year with an apology.

The apology, which we’ll get to in a second, was made to the general public after a video of His Holiness slapping a woman’s hand on New Year’s Eve went viral, sparking outrage on social media.

Was the outrage justified?

Let’s take a look at the offending video before we break it down.

The hand-slapping takes place roughly 19 seconds into the meet and greet:

To be fair, I probably would have slapped her hand, too.

Over to The Guardian for a brief summary of the Twitter storm that followed the slapping:

The identity of the woman is unknown, but a video of the incident went viral, prompting indignation on social media. One Twitter user wrote: “What the pope did demonstrates one thing – he’s a man.”

I’m pretty sure that preventing someone from trying to yank your hand off your wrist is a perfectly gender-neutral thing to do.

And now, the Pope’s apology:

During his Angelus address to a packed St Peter’s Square on New Year’s Day, the pontiff referred to his actions. “I apologise for the bad example yesterday … sometimes even I lose patience,” he said.

In his address on Wednesday morning, the Pope also condemned violence against women. He said: “By how we treat a woman’s body, we can understand our level of humanity.”

You might recall that time Pope Francis didn’t want his hand kissed. The poor guy seems to spend a lot of time trying to get people to let go of his hands.

Simmer down, Twitter. This is one of those battles you should probably just let go.

[source:guardian]