Up until now, Pope Francis had been very popular among members of the Catholic Church. However, the leader of the religion recently got himself in a bit of a sticky situation after a woman reached out to grab his hand, and he slapped her palm away. The woman refused to let go of the religious figure, causing the Pope to become stressed and act out. The New Year's Eve celebration took a bit of a downturn after that.
WATCH: Disgruntled Pope Francis pulls himself free from a woman's clutch in Vatican City https://t.co/2nap3R0iQ4 pic.twitter.com/tubJ1xmaxu
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 1, 2020
The video, unsurprisingly, went viral almost immediately. People all over the world were weighing in on whether or not the act was justified. Was it out of character, or just humanizing? More importantly, there was a whole host of new memes. Worshippers and nonbelievers alike were making jokes about the extreme reaction.
When your friends tryin' to make you stay at the club but you gotta make curfew. #popeslap pic.twitter.com/4qte3SkBH6
— 🎙 Shaun McMahon 🎙 (@ThatGr8VoiceGuy) January 1, 2020
This is a big moment for Catholics because as everyone knows all of the pope's actions are infallible according to church teaching, therefore we now have moral license to slap whoever we want
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) January 2, 2020
The Pope later apologized for the viral moment, saying "We lose patience many times. It happens to me too. I apologize for the bad example given yesterday." However, while the clergy might think this memorable moment is over forever, the internet knows that memes last forever. This new year is going to really slap!