Milan Priest, 65, Confirms Viral Middle Finger Video Is Real

The video lasts a few seconds and it has been watched around the world. A priest stands at the door of his church in central Milan while masked young people stream past during a night of riots. One of them raises both middle fingers at him. The priest raises one back.

The priest is Father Giannicola Maria Simone, 65, of the Church of Sant'Alessandro in Milan. The scene happened on October 17, as protests over rising living costs and fuel prices turned violent in Milan and other northern Italian cities. Protesters smashed windows and clashed with police. People fleeing the unrest ran toward the church, and Simone let them shelter inside.

This week he confirmed the video is real. People had started claiming it was made with AI. He told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that fake versions are now circulating, but the original is genuine. His account of the moment is plain. As the young people passed, someone gave him the middle finger. They are kids, he said, so he was not surprised. He returned the gesture, he said, without any violent intentions and without wanting to spark more anger.

No regret

Asked whether he regretted it, Simone said no. What is there to regret, he asked, adding that he did not even throw a punch and has never raised a hand to anyone. He said the people who came into the church were tourists and passersby, not worshippers, and he let them stay until the confusion died down. He also said some of his own college students ran down to the square to defend him when the video spread. His answer to them was a question: defend myself from what?

Simone has worked with young people his whole life. He said he does not believe the young protesters were trying to get into the church. He tried to speak with some of them about what they were protesting and found their answers vague. Every now and then, he said, you have to tell young people to be careful what they do.

Why it spread

The clip landed in the middle of two arguments at once. One is about the protests themselves, which began over the cost of living and turned into street violence that Italian police had to contain. The other is about what is real online. A genuine video of an unusual moment was quickly doubted as an AI fake, and the man in it had to say on the record that it happened. Simone's own read of the scene is smaller than the argument around it: a priest opened his doors to people who were scared, answered a rude gesture in kind, and went back to work.

The church sits near Piazza Sant'Alessandro in the center of Milan. The protests of October 17 and 18 left smashed storefronts and a political fight over who is responsible for the violence. The most shared image of that weekend is not a broken window. It is a 65 year old priest on his own steps, giving back exactly what he got.