Pope Francis has been the focus of outrage this week after slapping a woman who grabbed him — thereby, if my interpretation of Canon Law is correct, infallibly granting all Catholics the moral right to smack whomever we please. As a Catholic and a longtime critic of Pope Francis, I’m thrilled that he finally did something I can support. Though he issued an unfortunate apology, thus losing most of the goodwill he’d accrued in my eyes, the Slap Heard Round The World was nonetheless justified.
The media has of course given the most sensationalist framing it could to the incident. The New York Times may win the prize this time, declaring that Francis had “slapped away a clinging pilgrim.” This brings to mind images of a dusty traveler in tattered clothing getting chucked into the street as she tries to greet the Pope after a long journey on a holy pilgrimage. CNN implied that Francis had committed “violence against women,” which makes it sound like he flew into a blind rage and pummeled an innocent onlooker.
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