Pope Francis encourages families: Put down your phones, talk during meals

ON the Day of the Holy Family, Pope Francis urged families to put their phones down and communicate during meals.

In his weekly Angelus message delivered December 29, the pope said that Mary, Joseph and Jesus, the Holy Family, “prayed, worked… and communicated,” and they helped each other “to discover and fulfil God’s plan.”

He posed this question to the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square: “Do you know how to communicate?”

The pope’s message was streamed by Vatican News.

“Or are you like those boys at the table, with the telephone at the table touching it always? It seems at the table that there is silence as if we were at mass but there is no communication,” the pope said.

“We need to rediscover in the family—fathers and parents with their children with grandparents but communication as brothers among themselves. This is a task we need to do today, specifically today the day of the Holy Family,” Pope Francis added.