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	Former President Mary McAleese has criticised Pope Francis&rsquo; comments on smacking children, warning it could signal a turning back of the clock in the church&rsquo;s attitude to corporal punishment and children&rsquo;s rights.</p>
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	In a letter to the Irish Independent, the former professor of law at Trinity, who is currently completing a doctorate in canon law, highlights the Vatican is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.</p>
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	The Convention advocates the abolition of corporal punishment of children in all circumstances.</p>
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	The mother-of-three refers to an exchange last year between the Holy See and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child which claimed corporal punishment &ldquo;remains widespread in some Catholic institutions&rdquo; and &ldquo;reached endemic levels&rdquo; in Ireland as revealed by the Ryan Report.</p>
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	&ldquo;Is the Holy See now doing what it claimed not to be doing a year ago, namely actively and internationally promoting the corporal punishment of children,&rdquo; the former President writes. &ldquo;If it is, then Pope Francis has surely turned the clock back considerably.&rdquo;</p>
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	The UN Committee highlighted that the Vatican has not enacted guidelines banning corporal punishment of children in Catholic schools, as well as in the home.</p>
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	This week, the Pope controversially reaclled a conversation he had with a father who told him he sometimes hit his children.</p>
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	&quot;One time, I heard a father say, &#39;At times I have to hit my children a bit, but never in the face so as not to humiliate them&#39;.</p>
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	&quot;That&#39;s great. He had a sense of dignity. He should punish, do the right thing, and then move on,&quot; Pope Francis told an audience of thousands in St Peter&#39;s Square.</p>
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	In response, Dr McAleese asks: &quot;What faith are we to have now in the Holy See&#39;s Commitment to the Convention on the Rights of the Child?&quot; She asks whether the Vatican has decided to &quot;oppose the stated view of the Committee that the corporal punishment of children should be banned&quot;.</p>
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	According to Dr McAleese, the Vatican said it would submit a thorough study in respect of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.</p>
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	In her letter, she questions whether the Pontiff&#39;s &quot;recent advocacy of parental corporal punishment of children (provided it does not involve face-slapping apparently)&quot; is an indication that the Vatican has &quot;conducted the thorough study and investigation it promised the Committee on the Rights of the Child&quot;.</p>
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	This is the second time in recent weeks that Pope Francis has caused controversy with comments about violent acts.</p>
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	In the wake of the &#39;Charlie Hebdo&#39; killings in France he suggested that those who insult another person&#39;s religion should expect a violent reaction.</p>
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	&quot;One cannot react violently, but if [someone] says something bad about my mother, he can expect a punch,&quot; the Pontiff said.</p>
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	Dr McAleese, who served as President from 1997 to 2011, is known for her Catholic faith but is also not afraid to challenge the Vatican.</p>
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	Last September in Sydney, she argued for an increased role for women in the church, saying: &quot;The old boys&#39; club are going to have to go.&quot;</p>
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	She said it is &quot;bonkers&quot; for a celibate male clergy to be making decisions on the family.</p>
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	<a href="http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/mcaleese-critical-of-pope-over-comments-on-smacking-children-30971771.html">http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/mcaleese-critical-of-pope-over-comments-on-smacking-children-30971771.html</a></p>
