Vatican sex abuse group contradicts Pope, says it's not OK to spank

A Vatican sex abuse committee recommends that Pope Francis revise his remarks on spanking, given that "millions of children around the world are physically beaten every day."

Members of Pope Francis' sex abuse commission have sharply criticized his remarks that it is OK for parents to spank their children, saying there is no place for physical discipline and that the commission would be making recommendations to him about protecting kids from corporal punishment.

The commission met with its full 17 members for the first time this week and announced progress Saturday on drafting policies for holding bishops accountable when they cover up for pedophile priests. It will also be organizing educational seminars for Vatican officials and newly minted bishops on protecting children from predators.

But members got an unexpected and urgent new task when Francis told his general audience this week that it was OK for parents to spank their children if their dignity was respected.

“One time, I heard a father in a meeting with married couples say, ‘I sometimes have to smack my children a bit, but never in the face so as to not humiliate them,’” the pope said. “How beautiful!”

“He knows the sense of dignity!” Pope Francis added. “He has to punish them but does it justly and moves on.”

Commission member Peter Saunders, who was sexually abused by a priest as a teen, said the committee would recommend that the pope revise his remarks, given that "millions of children around the world are physically beaten every day."

"It might start off as a light tap, but actually the whole idea about hitting children is about inflicting pain," Saunders told a press conference. "That's what it's about and there is no place in this day and age for having physical punishment, for inflicting pain, in terms of how you discipline your children."

Another commission member, Dr. Krysten Winter-Green, a New Zealand native now working in the U.S. with abused young people, said there was no type of corporal punishment for children that was acceptable.

"There has to be positive parenting, in a different way," she said.

As The Christian Science Monitor reported, the Pope's endorsement of corporal punishment didn't sit well with many. 

"It is disappointing that anyone with that sort of influence would make such a comment," Peter Newell, a coordinator at the Global Initiative to End Corporal Punishment of Children, told The Telegraph.

Peter Saunders, founder of the UK-basedNational Association for People Abused in Childhood, called the pope’s statement “misguided.”

“It is a most unhelpful remark to have made and I will tell him that,” said Mr. Saunders, who was abused by Catholic priests as a boy and whom the pope appointed to a Vatican commission protecting children from abuse.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Vatican sex abuse group contradicts Pope, says it's not OK to spank
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2015/0207/Vatican-sex-abuse-group-contradicts-Pope-says-it-s-not-OK-to-spank
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe