He never absolved sins. I think he just taught about Catholic teachings. He was definitely not an appealing spokesman though and neither is the new guy.
He’s totally joking around. It wasn’t funny though unless maybe among friends (and camera lady does seem to think it’s funny) but why would the whole world have to see some dumb inside humor? People really need to stop posting inane stuff online, which is most of the stuff online these days.
To me he seemed to have a combination of being tired, being distracted by something and thinking about 5 other things. Not a great look but I doubt it was purposeful.