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Pope Francis sorry for 'losing patience' with devotee


Pope Francis apologized on Wednesday for his disgruntled response at a female devotee who yanked his arm in an event at St. Peter’s Square.

The pope approached the crowd on New Year's Eve while on his way to the large Nativity scene set up at the Vatican City square when a woman abruptly grabbed his arm and pulled him toward her.

Pope Francis, visibly irritated, pulled himself free and gave the woman a slap on the hand.

A video of the exchange has since made rounds online.

During the Angelus prayer for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, the pope apologized for “losing patience.”

“[God’s] salvation is not magical, but it is a ‘patient’ salvation, that is, it involves the patience of love, which takes on wickedness and removes its power,” Pope Francis was quoted as saying in a Vatican News report.

“We often lose patience. So do I. And I apologize for yesterday's bad example,” he added.

In a Reuters report, the Pontiff's unusual apology came after he used his first homily of the new year to denounce violence against women, which he compared to profaning God.

Pope Francis, 83, had a sharp encounter with a woman on Tuesday evening during a walkabout in St. Peters Square.

The pilgrim, who has not been identified, unexpectedly seized his hand and pulled him towards her, causing him evident alarm. A clearly disgruntled Francis wrenched himself free by slapping down at her arm.

"So many times we lose patience, even me, and I apologise for yesterday's bad example," the pope told thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday at the end of the traditional New Year Mass.

He had used the service to issue a forthright condemnation of the abuse of women in modern society.

"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".

Despite creating life, women "are continually offended, beaten, raped, forced into prostitution" and made to have abortions, he said. "We can understand our level of humanity by the way we treat a woman's body," he told the congregation.

During his homily, Francis also addressed another theme close to his heart, immigration, saying women who moved abroad to provide for their children should be honoured, not scorned.

"Today even motherhood is humiliated, because the only growth that interests us is economic growth," he said.

"There are mothers, who risk perilous journeys to desperately try to give the fruit of the womb a better future and are judged to be redundant by people whose bellies are full of things, but whose hearts are empty of love."

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church, which allows only unmarried men to be ordained as priests, also said women "must be fully involved in decision-making processes".

The pope said last April the Church had to acknowledge a history of male domination and sexual abuse of women. A month later, he appointed for the first time four women to an important Vatican department that prepares the major meetings of world bishops. —Julia Mari Ornedo/LBG, GMA News with Reuters

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