After smacking incident, Pope Francis tells nun 'don't bite' before planting warm kiss on her cheek
Pope Francis has put one precondition for anyone who wants to give him a kiss: “Don’t bite!”
The head of the Catholic Church was greeting a crowd of people before his weekly General Audience on Wednesday when he was stopped by a nun who wanted to give him a kiss.
“Bacio, Papa!” the nun shouted, which translates to, “A kiss, pope!” per Reuters.
The 83-year-old happily obliged, but not before joking “Oh, [but] you bite!” He added, “stay calm! I will give you a kiss, but you stay calm. Don’t bite!” he added.
When the nun agreed to his condition, the Pope proceeded to plant a warm kiss on her cheek.
The heartwarming incident was captured on camera, where Pope Francis is seen shaking hands with the nun before she expresses her request.
The Pope is then seen making a 'no'-like gesture to the nun before eventually going in for the kiss. As he warmly clasps her face in his hands and kisses her on the cheek, the doting nun jumps with joy.
The crowd surrounding the duo then erupts with cheers and applause.
This comes just a week after the Pope made headlines for slapping a woman's hand after she grabbed him and refused to let go.
The Pope was seen in a recent video posted on social media visibly disgruntled as he had to pull himself away from the woman in a crowd in St Peter's Square after she grabbed his hand and yanked him towards her. The incident occurred when the pontiff was in Vatican City greeting pilgrims on his way to see the Nativity scene put up in the cobbled esplanade, reports state.
Francis was greeting children, and reaching out to shake their hands when a woman standing nearby seized his hand as he was about to turn away and pulled him towards her. The gesture appeared to cause him pain as he jerked his hand free with a slap on the woman's hands. The woman reportedly had made the sign of the cross as Francis was heading towards her. However, it is not yet clear what was she saying to the pope as she attempted to pull him towards her.
Pope Francis' stroll reportedly left most tourists and Romans gathered there delighted apart from the brief upset, which showed the pontiff being angry for a few seconds in a rare public exhibit of the emotion.
Francis later apologized for his behavior while addressing the faithful in Vatican City on January 1.
“So many times we lose patience, even me, and I apologize for yesterday’s bad example,” he said, according to The Washington Post.