Pope Francis recently encouraged a group of mothers to breast-feed their babies during a baptism ceremony at Sistine Chapel. ‘You mothers, give your children milk, if they cry because they are hungry, breast-feed them, don’t worry,’ he said. This position of the Pope is somewhat of a radical departure from his predecessors.
The holy father previously expressed his support of public breast-feeding in December 2013 during an interview with La Stampa in which he stated:
There was a young mother behind one of the barriers with a baby that was just a few months old. The child was crying its eyes out as I came past. The mother was caressing it. I said to her: Madam, I think the child’s hungry. “Yes, it’s probably time…” she replied. “Please give it something to eat!” I said. She was shy and didn’t want to breast-feed in public, while the Pope was passing. I wish to say the same to humanity: Give people something to eat!
On the contrary, in the United States, while most States allow it, some conservative quarters asked the mothers to do it in the restroom or to cover-up.
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