The Pope has said smacking your child can be "beautiful" - but he's very wrong.

Pope Francis has said that is it ok to smack your child as long as the child’s dignity is maintained.

To the horror of many, Pope Francis has told his weekly general audience, which was devoted to the role of fathers in the family, that it is okay to hit your children.

He said smacking can be  “beautiful” when it’s done right.

That is, as long as it’s not on the face, and as long as it’s done with “dignity”.

These are the words from the Pope we all love to love, Pope Francis.

The man who was Time’s 2013 Man of the Year.

The man who has done more (but not enough) for the relationship between gay and lesbian Catholics and the Church than any other Pope in history.

The man who only yesterday handed out umbrellas to the homeless.

These are the words which 1.2 billion Catholics across the word should be ashamed of.

I am a Catholic, my late Grandmother’s proudest moment was when I met and was kissed by former Pope John Paul when I was visiting the Vatican as child.

I can see the temptation to brush aside these comments as misguided yet well-meaning.

And yet brushing them aside would be a form of empowerment. They need to be discussed, and refuted.

Catholics need to make clear that smacking is abuse.

The very idea that abusing a child (because, lets be frank smacking a child IS abuse) can be dignified is appalling.

The idea that there are levels of smacking that could be justified is simply wrong.

Read more: QLD Politician smacks child caught on camera

It has always been an emotional debate. For many the right to discipline their children the way they want should be paramount, they claim that outsiders should not interfere in how parents raise their children.

They claim they only hit them out of love.

These are the same hollow arguments we hear about a husband striking his wife.

There is no acceptable level of abuse on a child.

There is no reason parents should be allowed to wallop their two or three-year old. There is no reason for parents to slap their 10-year old. Nothing can justify beating a seven-year old with a hand, a belt or a stick.

You can’t validate it through levels of abuse. A light tap being ok, a slap across the face being too much. A smack is a smack. Dignity goes out the window the moment you raise your hand.

And yet it happens, every day. In Australia we allow ‘reasonable force’ to discipline our kids.

Read more: “I won’t be praising anything the Pope has to say.” 

69% of Australian parents say they smack their children.

Yet 33 countries across the world disagree with Australia – and the Pope. In 33 countries, including New Zealand, corporal punishment is against the law.

Just this morning I watched a father smack his five-year old son violently across the backside.

He struck him when his willful little boy refused to get out of the pool. I was on the other side of a 50m public pool with my three children who were practicing bombing each other off the blocks. It was a sparkling summers day in Sydney today. The sky cloudless and the heat still yet hasn’t gathered that steamy February density which makes tempers fray.

The morning was perfect, and then a man abused his child in front of fifty other families.

Read more: The PM reckons a “gentle smack” is okay for children. What do you think?

And you know what we did, us Sydney-siders out sharing one of our greatest harbourside pools?

We turned out heads away and continued on.

Would we have done the same if he had struck his wife? If he had smashed her violently across the back of her legs leaving her stricken in silence?  If he had hit her so hard she was left with a red mark below her dripping cossie?

Would we have held our tongues?

Why do we not see the two actions as similar? Why are we so afraid to step in and speak up when a parent smacks a child?

Because the law lets them. Because society allows it. Because we are so afraid of crossing the line into someone’s privacy we turn away from it.

Because we read comments such as those from Pope Francis and think, oh, it is ok.

5.4 million Australians are Catholic, and every single one of them needs to know that what the Pope said was wrong.

Purely and simply wrong.  There is never any excuse, there is never any way to make it dignified.

He was wrong.