Francis got physical.

Pope Francis slapped the woman twice in St. Peter’s Square — Then angrily walked away!

NOPE FROM THE POPE: While greeting people in St. Peter's Square on New Year's Eve, Pope Francis had to pull himself away from a woman who grabbed his hand and yanked him toward her. https://t.co/umkpOnbbX6 pic.twitter.com/0XzxtWTMUd

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On Wednesday, during his World Peace Day sermon Pope Francis apologized for slapping the woman.

It’s a start.

Catholic News Service reported:

Pope Francis began the New Year with an apology for losing his patience the night before with a woman who grabbed his hand and yanked him closer to her while he was greeting people in St. Peter’s Square…

…briefly departing from his prepared text, the pope said that “love makes us patient. We often lose our patience; me, too, and I apologize for my bad example last night.”

Returning to his text, Pope Francis said that in gazing upon the Nativity scene with the eyes of faith, “we see the world renewed, freed from the dominion of evil and placed under the regal lordship of Christ, the baby lying in the manger.”

The church marks Jan. 1 as both the feast of Mary, Mother of God, and World Peace Day, he said, urging Catholics to pray for peace and to recognize their responsibility to work for peace.