Cardinal Ferrão shares phone-free family evenings at Vatican bishops meeting

Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrão told a Vatican meeting of bishops on Oct. 8 how a parish in India successfully used phone-free evenings to help a family reconnect. Speaking during a gathering with the presidents of bishops' conferences and heads of Eastern churches to mark the 10th anniversary of Amoris Laetitia, the cardinal described a family where children spent their time on phones and parents lacked the energy to engage with them.

Ferrão, who serves as the president of the bishops' conference in India and the archbishop of Goa and Daman, noted that a parish priest discovered these difficulties during a home visit. The priest encouraged the family to communicate openly rather than providing immediate solutions. To address the distance caused by technology and exhaustion, the family began holding one phone-free evening per week, sharing one meal daily, and praying for a few minutes with their children.

The cardinal reported that these small changes helped the family face their struggles together. This experience led the priest to establish a parish family ministry.