VATICAN CITY
Irish Independent
Philip Pullella
PUBLISHED 07/02/2015
A victim of child sexual abuse by clergy criticised Pope Francis on Saturday for appearing to endorse parents who spanked their children.
“Children don’t need to be hit. We need to talk about positive parenting … physical violence has no part in modern-day child upbringing,” said Peter Saunders, who is advising the Vatican on how to deal with its abuse crisis.
“I was hit throughout my childhood and it did me a lot of harm,” said Saunders, who was abused by a priest when he was a teenager and is one of 17 members of a Vatican commission tasked with recommending reforms in the 1.2 billion-member Church.
During a talk on fatherhood at his general audience last Wednesday, Francis departed from his prepared text to recount a conversation he once had with a father at a family encounter.
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