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Pope Francis showed a rare sign of anger after a crowd tugged on his arms and nearly pulled him over during his visit to Mexico.
Francis was at a stadium in Morella on Tuesday when the incident occurred.
He was greeting people at an open air Mass for youth.
Video footage showed the Pope stopping in front of a man in a wheelchair.
At this point, two arms reached out to grab him, not letting go even as he lost his balance and was pushed onto the man.
Aides and security personnel stopped the Pope from falling to the ground.
And although the Pontiff recovered and kissed the man in the wheelchair on the head, he did not hide his irritation, the Daily Mail reported.
The head of the Catholic Church yelled: “No seas egoísta. Qué te pasó, no seas egoísta”, which translates to “Don’t be selfish, don’t be selfish”.
Francis took a couple of steps back as appeals came over the public address system asking the crowd not to clump together.
The Pontiff continued to wave to people and handed out rosaries for a few minutes more before leaving again.
Speaking after the incident, Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, said that the papal scolding was a “normal human reaction” to certain admirers’ “excessive enthusiasm”.
The Pope has said in the past that he is prone to anger, but that his bad tempers do not last.
During the trip to Mexico, Pope Francis has urged Mexico’s young people to resist the lure of easy money from drug dealers and to instead build up their communities by valuing themselves as the wealth of the country.
Sources
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News category: World.
