The Pope has said something else to ignite passions. While speaking with a large audience this past Wednesday, when Pope Francis I told them that it is okay for parents to spank their children so long as they do not demean them.
“I once heard at a wedding a father say, ‘I sometimes have to hit my children a little but never in the face, so as to not demean them.’ How nice, I thought, he has a sense of dignity,” the Pope said. “When he punishes, he does it right and moves on.”
Since then, the Vatican’s commission on sex abuse disagrees with him and has said it will work with changing the pontif’s thinking on this issue.