It's not every day you wake up and find the Pope waxing poetic on vulgar gestures, but today is apparently a special day, for Pope Francis has offered Twitter his thoughts on the middle finger.

Though it certainly looks like the Pope is saying that sticking one's middle finger up, a near-universally understood signal meaning "fuck you," is also a symbol of honesty against corruption, this is definitely not the case.

Prior to his viral tweet about middle fingers, the Pope tweeted, "I would like to suggest some 'ingredients for the future': five of them, each corresponding to a finger on your hand."

God has placed the gift of life in your hands. From your hands tomorrow is born. From your hands peace so lacking in this country can come about. I would like to suggest some “ingredients for the future”: five of them, each corresponding to a finger on your hand #ApostolicJourney

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) February 2, 2023

The Pope then fired off five tweets – one for each finger – about what the digits of the hand represent. The "middle finger" tweet was clearly the most popular one for obvious reasons and soon spread widely through Twitter without context.

While reports say there was an attempt to salvage the thread by deleting the "middle finger" tweet and reposting it with the phrase "the third finger," the damage was apparently done, and the Pope's finger parable is gone from the internet.

Nevertheless, his middle finger tweet lives on in memes, as those who saw the Pope's tweet instantly saw its potential.

RIP to the pope middle finger tweet. it will inevitably live on pic.twitter.com/BNZN32lsot

— rachel (@rachelmillman) February 2, 2023

me to my kid: don’t do the middle finger, it’s rude

my kid: pic.twitter.com/vVS5C0KZ9Y

— tea (@teaandleaf) February 2, 2023

This… is not the kind of tweet I would expect, coming from the Pope.

I have a certain respect for his Holiness though, and will strive to give the middle finger to the snares of corruption. pic.twitter.com/0vUJIRpC24

— Arthur Again (@Arthur_Again) February 2, 2023