This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Footage of Pope Francis repeatedly pulling his hand away from being kissed by a long line of people has gone viral, becoming part of the Catholic cultural wars between conservatives and progressives.

The video, from the pontiff’s visit to a Catholic shrine in Loreto on Monday, drew reaction from both his critics and supporters.

LifeSiteNews, a conservative Catholic website that often criticises the pope, called the episode “disturbing” in the headline of an article that included a long history of the rings popes wear and their significance.

The war against Pope Francis Read more

Rorate Caeli, a website read by Catholic traditionalists, tweeted: “Francis, If you don’t want to be the Vicar of Christ, then get out of there!”

The papal biographer Austen Ivereigh, a supporter of Francis, countered by tweeting: “He’s making sure that they engage with him, not treat him like a sacred relic. He’s the Vicar of Christ, not a Roman emperor.”

“It’s high time kissing bishops’ rings disappears altogether. It’s just ridiculous and has nothing to do with tradition. It’s an import from monarchies. Much of the pomp around bishops should be ditched,” tweeted Russell Pollitt, a Jesuit priest.

Some Vatican watchers noted that even Francis’s predecessors Benedict, a hero to nostalgic conservatives, and John Paul II did not like having their hands kissed – at least not by long lines of people, for the sake of expediency.

One Twitter user recalled that when he visited John Paul with a group of 50 people they were told specifically not to kneel or kiss the papal hand.

The Vatican did not say why Francis was so insistent on not having the ring – a simple silver one with a cross – kissed in the long receiving line.

“Sometimes he likes it, sometimes he does not. It’s really as simple as that,” said a close aide to the pope who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The aide added he was “amused” by all the reaction.