The Papal punch

Pope Francis is many things. A lot of people think he’s the most liberal pope in history. But on Thursday, he proved he is no pacifist.

He was standing in the aisle of the Papal plane, next to one of his aides, holding a microphone, stating the obvious, that he condemned the attack on Charlie Hebdo.

But then he also said it’s wrong to insult a person’s religious faith, “I believe, you cannot react violently. But if Dr. Gasparri, my great friend, says a curse against my mother, he can expect a punch! This is normal.”

He didn’t merely speak the words. With his free hand, he threw a nasty right jab toward his friend.

I could hear the voice of Howard Cosell watching it from Heaven! “The right for the first knock-down, clean as a whistle!”

If Gasparri had been any closer, he’d have been laid out in the aisle.

A Vatican spokesman said it was, “In no way intended to justify the terrorism in Paris,” but neither was it, “turn the other cheek.”

So what did it mean?

I would take it at face value: If you’re insulted, you can make your point with one punch. You don’t have to kill someone.

I don’t think it applies so much to Charlie Hebdo. But it did get me thinking about the approach we’ve tried to take to bullying. It’s based on the premise that if we just sanitize the language enough, bullies will go away.

Pretty much every kid, every boy anyway, finds out sooner or later that what makes a bully stop is when his target finally fights back. Not with a gun, but the way the Pope would.

“He can expect a punch!”

Amen.