That’s one of the odder reasons for not becoming Catholic I’ve heard, though I do see your logic.
Any comments the Pope has made about spanking were casual and certainly not in any way official or binding on Catholics. He is an elderly Latin American who has never had children of his own. Most people of that generation favor spanking (and I suspect, though I may be wrong, that Latin Americans are less influenced by the anti-spanking movement than Anglos). I was spanked. I survived. My wife and I are committed not to spank our children.
Can you accept the possibility that spanking is not “abuse” in some absolute, trans-cultural sense, but is a flawed cultural practice that very easily becomes abuse and thus is better avoided? That’s my own position. Or even if you think it is abuse, can you accept that a good person of a particular cultural and generational background might not see that it’s abuse? But even if you think the Pope is a bad person,you can still become Catholic. There have been some very bad Popes. Popes have spoken out, far more officially than anything Pope Francis has said that bothers you, in favor of burning people at the stake, which is surely much worse than spanking!
