Pope Accidentally Gives Thumbs Up to Middle Finger

If you've ever wondered when the elderly spiritual leader of 1.3 billion Christian souls would get on his Twitter account and accidentally expound on the rudest gesture in Western culture, well, today is that day. As Mediaite reports, Pope Francis was going about his day per usual, waxing poetic about the "gift of life" that God has placed ... in your hands." He then went on to offer up five "'ingredients for the future:' each corresponding to a finger on your hand."

Francis began innocently enough with the thumb, which is "closest to our heart," then the index finger, which "we use to point things out to each other." But predictably, he got into trouble with the next finger:

• "The middle finger, which is higher than the others, reminds us of something essential: honesty. To be honest means not getting entangled in the snares of corruption."

The tweet stood for about 50 minutes, before it was apparently pointed out that the middle finger reminds us of something else, and the tweet was replaced, with "middle finger" saying simply "third finger." (That tweet appears to have been deleted, too.) The Daily Dot rounds up some reaction to the initial tweet, including this gem: “I am doing to the Lord’s work driving on the Belt Parkway this morning. Who else wants a blessing?” (More Pope Francis stories.)