The Pope wants you to stop playing videogames. Not you specifically of course, but he reckons we could all do with stepping away from the computer and getting outside.
Clearly, he hasn’t played Pokemon GO.
Anyway, this revelation came when Pope Francis visited Poland, where he gave a speech to young people and encouraged them to take a more active role in society (which apparently you can can’t do in between games on Battlefield).
Pope Francis, 79, told the crowd that gathered in a meadow in Brzegi:
Dear young people, we didn’t come into this world to ‘vegetate’, to take it easy, to make our lives a comfortable sofa to fall asleep on. No, 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. You want others to decide your future?
Organisers said roughly 1.6 million people came to hear the pope discuss the perils of modern escapism and how videogames can cause a disconnect in society.
While I can obviously see where The Pope is coming from, it’s a little disheartening to hear that he still isn’t sold on videogames, especially after MatPat (of Game Theory fame) gave him a copy of Undertale to play.
Obviously MatPat should’ve given him DOOM. Blasting demons straight outta hell? That’s gotta be right up The Pope’s alley.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.