He said the addiction of many children to gadgets was isolating them to the point where they were like little pensioners, the 78-year-old Pontiff said. This week he warned the crowds in Vatican City that the practice of eating meals together is vanishing as technology replaces relationships. Continuing his catechesis on the family, the Holy Father’s main focus of attention on Wednesday was family togetherness.
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“When the children at the table are attached to their computers, or the phone, and do not listen to each other, this is not a family”, the Pope stressed, it is a hotel.
This was a moment when all the events of the day – happy as well as sad – are brought to the fore and discussed.
“In family life we learn about togetherness from a young age, which is a very attractive virtue the family teaches us to share, with joy, the blessings of life”, he said. According to him, how is it possible to have a quality meal when relatives “barely ever eat together, or (a family) which doesn’t talk at the table but watches television, or a smartphones?”. It is a fundamental experience.
The Pope noted that the most tangible sign of this when families are “gathered around the household table”.
The celebration of the Eucharist is the place where families, drawing from their own experience, open themselves to the grace of “universal togetherness and a fraternity without borders”, he said.
Cardinal George Alencherry of India, major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, elevates the Eucharist during Mass in 2012 at Resurrection Church in Farmingville, New York The Eucharist is not just a reward for the good, but also strength for the weak and nourishment for those who hunger for love, forgiveness and mercy, Pope Francis said.
He then explained that because Jesus gave us the Eucharist as a meal, there was a close relationship between families and the Mass.
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“Family mealtimes should be embraced as a daily opportunity to cultivate a sense of togetherness”, said Norman Wells, the director of the United Kingdom charity.
