To err is human, to forgive divine – this is what Pope Francis must have consoled himself with after he ended up mispronouncing a word, that came to mean the Italian equivalent of F***.
The pontiff, who presides over the Holy see, was faced with a rather ‘unholy’ slip of tongue when instead of “case”, he erroneously articulated “cazzo”, which in Italian translates to mean the “male genitalia” or the cuss word “F***”.
“If each of us were to garner wealth not just for ourselves but to put at the service of others, in this cazzo (f*** in Italian) — in this case, God’s blessing would manifest itself in this gesture of solidarity,” the Pope said.
The embarrassing error took place while the Pope was addressing a weekly Vatican mass at St Peters Square, leaving the audience in disbelief over what they heard.
However, the Pope was quick enough to correct himself and went on to pray for the Ukraine, which is mired in a crisis after Russian military intervention in Crimea.
The video of the papal address, which was immediately posted online, created a buzz on the social media with many on YouTube and Twitter reacting to the pope’s slip of tongue.
