Rome, Feb. 6: Pope Francis has come out in support of smacking naughty children -as long as their dignity is maintained.

Speaking about fatherhood to 7,000 people at the Vatican, the Pope recalled meeting a father who told him he hit his children when they misbehaved.

"Once, in a marriage counselling session, I heard a father say, 'Sometimes I need to hit my children a bit, but never in the face, to avoid humiliating them'," said the Pope, as he mimed the action of smacking a child on the bottom.

"That's great," he added. "He has a sense of dignity. He needs to punish, do the right thing and move on."

The Pope also advised fathers to "correct with firmness" their children's misbehaviour and avoid being "a weak father who gives in".

His comments are the latest example of plain-speaking by Pope Francis, which has kept cardinals and Vatican watchers off-balance since his election in 2013, when he replaced the more tight-lipped Pope Benedict.

The Pope's speech followed his claim last month that anyone who insulted his mother could expect a punch. Asked by journalists about the shooting in Paris of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, Pope Francis suggested that there were limits to the freedom of speech espoused by the French magazine.

Pretending to throw a punch at an aide, he said: "One cannot react violently, but if (someone) says something bad about my mother, he can expect a punch."

Last month, the Pope also discussed corrupt donors to the Church and said he had considered "kicking them where the sun doesn't shine".

The green light for smacking was defended yesterday by Antonio Mazzi, a priest who regularly appears on Italian television: "This Pope is always astounding us because he uses the same language we use. He has the measure of men, and is never artificial. This Pope is a father and speaks the same way our fathers would."

The Rev. Thomas Rosica, who collaborates with the Vatican press office, said the Pope was obviously not speaking about committing violence or cruelty against a child but rather about "helping someone to grow and mature".

"Who has not disciplined their child or been disciplined by parents when we are growing up?" Rosica said in an email to AP. "Simply watch Pope Francis when he is with children and let the images and gestures speak for themselves! To infer or distort anything else... reveals a greater problem for those who don't seem to understand a Pope who has ushered in a revolution of normalcy of simple speech and plain gesture."

THE TIMES, LONDON, And AP