Some things can't be unread.

So when I read this, from the Daily Mail:

Mourners who flocked to the Pope's lying-in-state on Wednesday have blasted ghoulish social media users for snapping selfies next to his open casket.

After passing away aged 88 on Easter Monday, Francis' body has been carried into Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for the three-day ritual.

Around 50,000 faithful have paid respects to the late Pontiff, but some sparked fury after posting macabre selfies which saw Francis' body laid out in robes in a wooden coffin in the background.

On Instagram, one image saw a woman smiling at the camera as she displayed the Pope clutching his rosary around 10ft behind her. His body, dressed in his white mitre and red Papal robe symbolising love and the blood of Christ, can clearly be seen in the coffin which lies on a raised platform.

Officials released photos of Francis in his velvet-lined coffin and did not ban public pictures, but guards reportedly stopped some morbid mourners using phone cameras.

You don't have to be a big fan of Pope Francis to find this behavior absolutely disgusting.

Here's a screen shot from InsideEdition on YouTube, with the media outlet's red markings:

It's why we can't have nice things.

Before he died, Pope Francis instructed his Vatican minions to give him as simple and unelevated a funeral as possible, and to bury him in a lowly individual church, rather than the grand basilica where other popes were buried.

His body was laid out where St. Peter's bones lie, for all the little guys out there to pay their final respects before he was buried on Tuesday. Many devout and respectful people did pass through to pay their respects ... but then there were the grinning selfie takers, who used their chance at a last glimpse of Pope Francis's body, his earthly person, as a prop for their own selfish ends, making it not about the pope, but about themselves, the pope's body being a mere 'nother landmark for them. One day it's them pulling the selfie stick out with a big toy Mickey Mouse, the next day, it's a waterfall, and now it's the pope's body, all for something to brag about, to show off to all their crummy little friends, to achieve fame and fortune as 'influencers.'

Of course it's disgusting. The pope, who was so game to kindly take selfies with the selfie-lovers (and it's not always young people) to indulge them as an old softie, seems to have gotten a final insult from them as they continue in their self-indulgent selfie-taking, this time with his dead body. What a hideous way to pay him back for all he did for so many of them.

The great Catholic essayist and novelist, Walker Percy, wrote about this strange phenomenon in his awesome 1975 book, "The Message in the Bottle," about how taking the photograph was becoming more important than experiencing the event itself.

Obviously, this attitude has grown widespread as people have become less and less interaction-oriented with one another because of cell phones and the like. Pope Francis allowed it in interactions with people on occasion to be kind to them. But he also knew that something wasn't right -- I recall how he condemned cell phone culture making people ever more distant from one another in Christian communities.

All I can say is that the next pope will have his work cut out for him. He's got to reverse this negative cultural trend that led to these ghouls taking their selfies without nothing a thing about how gross it was to everyone who hears about it, let alone sees it in front of them.

Image: Screen shot from InsideEdition video, via YouTube