Exactly one year ago we explained that Pope Francis had become one of the people who was helping to normalize breastfeeding in public, by inviting mothers to breastfeed their babies at the annual ceremony in which he baptizes a large number of children in the Sistine Chapel.
This year, as is tradition, he once again celebrated this ceremony to baptize 33 newborns, children of Vatican workers, and again, in what seems to be tradition too, he again encouraged mothers to breastfeed their babies during the ceremony, at the same time that he prayed for those who could not breastfeed.
Why wouldn't they be able to breastfeed a baby in the church?
One reads this, and reads last year and gets a little surprised because it seems obvious that if a baby is hungry, his mother can breastfeed quietly in the church, whether in your city, or in the Sistine Chapel. However, the rejection of breastfeeding in public that some women have received is such that it seems logical to doubt whether it is something that is right or wrong.
Without going any further, the last time I went to a church, the priest commented that since the ceremony was a little long, if the children got a little nervous, he invited them to get in places farther from the church, in the ranks from behind or even out if they saw fit. Pope Francis, on the other hand, argues that the most important in these ceremonies are babies and that, being extensive, they do not deserve to cry. That's why he asked again if they did, the mothers would feed them.
We thank the Lord for the gift of milk, and we pray for those mothers - they are so many unfortunately - that they cannot feed their children.
And the pontiff added that what "what milk does to the body, the Word of God does for the Spirit".
The gift of milk?
I also believe that it is to create breast milk is a gift, but I do not want to create controversial and sure that Pope Francis, with his words, either. The gift of milk is sure as magical as the gift of the ability to procreate that women have, to gestate a baby, to create it from two tiny cells. It is fascinating, as it is to be able to create the food that will continue its growth once the baby is born. It is to be thankful? Well I think yes. I do not know very well who, because I am an atheist, but I suppose that for those who believe in a God, then I may have to thank him.
Normalizing breastfeeding
But the most important, the most remarkable, is not so much what he said, but he talked about it. Whenever there are women and children, it encourages mothers to feed them. Whenever he talks about breastfeeding, he does it by normalizing the act. And this is good news because it is becoming one of the advocates of breastfeeding in public.
You will think that it is logical, that it is normal, especially considering that it is easy to see images of the Virgin Mary breastfeeding the Child Jesus, and so it is, but surely in more than one church it is not well seen to breastfeed a baby and no longer We only talk about churches, surely more than one mother has taken a bad look, a bad comment or her ears have been beaten, for breastfeeding in public. It's something that should be normal, but what it is not yet everywhere, unfortunately.
