UNITED STATES
The Hill
By Allan J. Lichtman, contributor
Pope Francis has expressed many wise and compassionate thoughts in his brief reign as pontiff:
“We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor.”
“If a homosexual person is of good will and is in search of God, I am no one to judge. We shouldn’t marginalize people for this.”
“The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials.”
“Women are asking deep questions that must be addressed. We must therefore investigate further the role of women in the Church.”
“Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else — God is in this person’s life.”
However, Pope Francis stumbled badly in his recent unscripted comments on the physical punishment of children. The pope said, “One time, I heard a father say, ‘At times I have to hit my children a bit, but never in the face so as not to humiliate them.'” The pope then added: “That’s great. He had a sense of dignity. He should punish, do the right thing, and then move on.”
Every attempt to hurt a child has baleful consequences. The many dozens of independent scientific studies now conducted on physical punishment demonstrate that it has multiple harmful effects on children, parents and society and virtually no positive effects of any kind.
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