VATICAN CITY
RTE News
Marie Collins, the Irish victim of sexual abuse who advises Pope Francis on child protection, has joined a chorus of dissent following the pontiff’s endorsement of what he called “dignified” corporal punishment in the home.
However, the Vatican spokesman has issued a statement denying that the Pope encourages parents to hit their children.
Ms Collins has sharply criticised the Catholic Church here over its cover-up of her abuse by a priest while she was a patient in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin.
She is in the Vatican for a meeting of the Commission for the Protection of Minors, to which Pope Francis appointed her shortly after his election in 2013.
Speaking at a news conference she disagreed with the Pope’s remarks at a public audience on Wednesday, praising a father he had met for respecting his children’s dignity by spanking them without striking them in the face.
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