Pope Francis Has Harsh Words For People Who Text During Dinner

Your family and friends may hate it when you text at the dinner table, but there’s no way they’re as extreme as Pope Francis.

The pope decried technology’s prominent seat at the dinner table in a speech to university students in Rome on Friday, according to People magazine.

“When we’re at the table, when we are speaking to others on our telephones, it’s the start of war because there is no dialogue,” he said.

A few years ago, the pontiff spoke to a crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square about the dangerous effects of families texting or watching TV during meal time, instead of paying attention to each other.

“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,” the pope said in November 2015, as reported by the Catholic News Agency. “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!”

The message from the Pope is clear ― if you’d like to prevent World War III at the dinner table, put away your phone and concentrate on food, family and friends.

Here are some great dinner recipes to get you started.