Pope Francis assured mothers that breast-feeding their babies in public, even during a papal Mass in the Sistine Chapel, is OK.
No chorus is as wonderful as the squeaks, squeals and banter of children, the pope said during a Mass in which he baptized 32 babies on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Jan. 12.
"Some will cry because they are uncomfortable or because they are hungry," he said during his brief and unscripted homily.
"If they are hungry, mothers, let them eat, no worries, because here they are the main focus," he said.
One of the mothers, Emer McCarthy, an Irish journalist at Vatican Radio, told Catholic News Service that while most of the other mothers had brought baby bottles for feedings, she did not hesitate to breast-feed her daughter, Polly Rose, discreetly during appropriate moments during the ceremony.
She said she hoped the pope's encouragement would help overcome social taboos against breast-feeding in public.
"Who would have thought the pope would be this great proponent," she said.
The pope made a similar appeal in an interview with La Stampa newspaper Dec. 15. In a world where so many children go hungry, people must help them eat, he said.
He used the example of a young woman he saw at a Wednesday general audience whose child was crying desperately.
"I told her, 'Ma'am I think your baby is hungry.' And she replied, 'Yes, it would be time.' I replied, 'Well, please, feed him.' She was modest and didn't want to breast-feed him in public while the pope drove by," the pope said in the interview.
The pope's remarks "underline how natural it is, how motherhood and maternity are natural and have a place, even in church, even in the Sistine Chapel," McCarthy said.
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