U.S. Parents Agree With Pope Francis On Need For Spanking To Instill Discipline In Kids

Most parents, regardless of race or educational attainment, living in the United States think that a little spanking is a good way of disciplining children and young adults.

A survey featured recently in Time magazine's "The Discipline Wars" showed that more than 75 percent of men and 65 percent of women support giving kids the occasional "good, hard spanking."

It also revealed that there is "no difference" in opinion about corporal punishment between parents with college degree and parents who did not reach high school.

There is also no difference in opinion among parents in the U.S. with Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic, American-Indian background, and even Alaska natives.

However, only 45 percent of fathers and only 12 percent of mothers with Asian background or living in the Pacific Islands think spanking has positive effect on children and will not harm them in the long run.

Time published the survey after Pope Francis gave parents the go-signal to smack children as a form of discipline as long as their dignity is preserved.

In his homily as part of the weekly general audience in Rome on Wednesday, Pope Francis told 7,000 Catholic believers in attendance about the role of fathers in the family.

"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 not to humiliate them,'" the Pope recalled, according to Reuters.

"How beautiful! He knows the sense of dignity! He has to punish them but does it justly and moves on," the Pontiff added.

The principle of not humiliating the child while doling out the punishment appears to be central to the Pope's justification of spanking as well as forgiveness.

"A good father knows how to wait and knows how to forgive from the bottom of his heart. Of course he can also discipline with a firm hand: he's not weak, submissive, sentimental," he said, according to CNN.

"This father knows how to discipline without demeaning; he knows how to protect without restraint," Francis added.

Rev. Thomas Rosica, who collaborates with the Vatican press office, clarified that the Pope wasn't speaking in favor of violence against children.

"Who has not disciplined their child or been disciplined by parents when we are growing up?" Rosica said.

"Simply watch Pope Francis when he is with children and let the images and gestures speak for themselves!" he added.

Rosica made the clarification after Pope Francis' remarks provoked social media outcry, with many accusing the Argentinian Pontiff of supporting violence.

Many children's rights groups like Global Alliance to End Corporal Punishment of Children, expressed disappointment over the Pontiff's statement.

National Association for People Abused in Childhood founder Peter Saunders said he thought the Pope's remarks were misplaced. "I think that is a very misguided thing to have said and I'm surprised he said it, although he does come up with some howlers sometimes," Saunders said, according to the Telegraph.

Saunders, who was abused for over five years by two Catholic priests as a child in London, was appointed by Pope Francis to his new Vatican commission on protecting children from abusive priests last December.