Pope Francis has urged "drowsy and dull kids" to swap their sofas and video games for walking boots at an international Catholic youth festival in Poland.The Pope said that the sofa gives children a false sense of safety, television numbs youngsters to suffering of others. In addition, he said children should get out of their living rooms.
He warned lounge chairs gave the illusion of safety from pain, fear or worries, allowing the sitter to kick back and lose themselves for hours in the latest television show or their smartphones.
"For many people it is easier and better to have drowsy and dull kids who confuse happiness with a sofa," he told an estimated one million people gathered at a vigil in a vast plain near Krakow.
"Dear young people, we didn't come into the world to vegetate ... we came for another reason: to leave a mark.
"The times we live in do not call for young 'couch potatoes' but for young people with shoes, or better, boots laced."
Papa Francis said being constantly glued to screens — where the terrible events of the world become just another story on the evening news — numbed youngsters to the suffering of others.
"Our response to a world at war has a name: fraternity," he said.
