The Cool Pope Is Not Down With Texting At The Dinner Table

Pope Francis is cool with lots of things: He’s down with the gays, he’s (marginally) more chill about abortion, and he would welcome aliens from outer space with open arms. He’s reasonable and real, and down with the kids. But if there’s one thing he will not stand, it’s using your flippin’ smartphone at the flippin’ dinner table.

The Catholic News Agency reports that this week, in an address to parishioners in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope preached:

A family that almost never eats together, or that never speaks at the table but looks at the television or the smartphone, is hardly a family. [...] When children at the table are attached to the computer or the phone and don’t listen to each other, this is not a family, this is a pensioner!

Talk to your mom, not to your Snapchat. His Holiness continued:

Sitting at table for the family dinner, sharing our meal and the experiences of our day, is a fundamental image of togetherness and solidarity.

So you’re going to be (marginally more) chill about gays and contraceptives and whatnot, but you’re going to encourage families to pay attention to each other at dinner and spend time together? That actually sounds ... completely reasonable! And you know what else? He says dogs go to heaven. Evolution? Might be real, he says. The Holy Father seems like a really good dad. Look, he even drives a Ford Focus. He’s about all the right things, in addition to the normal rules like kindness and charity and doing unto others as you would have them do to you. He’s level-headed. He’s relaxed. I bet he’d even be cool with you drinking, as long as you do it in the house.

h/t LA Times

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