Archbishop Tagle urges families to eat together at home

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle. RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY—”Restore family meals,” thus said Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle on Thursday as he urged families to break individualism when eating meals.

“The basic unit of the meal is the table, the common table. Nowadays, the basic unit of the meal is my plate. And if I have my plate with food on it, I can go anywhere and eat by myself,” Tagle said.

“But that is not a meal. That is just eating,” he said.

The prelate urged families to break the culture of individualism in the home.

“Individualistic persons know how to eat, but they don’t know how to participate in a meal,” he said.

He explained that during a meal, family members share more than the food.

“It is during common meals that we also share common stories. We don’t only share food. We share life,” he said.

The cardinal said many values are developed when having meals with the family.

“Trust, sharing, and sensitivity are developed when having meals with the family,” he said, adding these are not developed in a seminar.

“So when the moment family meals are absent, where do we learn sensibility and all of these?” he asked.

But the cardinal admitted that were a lot of factors that prevented families from sharing meals together.

One is traffic, he said.

“If we want to restore family meals, we should address the issue of traffic.”

He cited that in Metro Manila, the mother will cook at 6 p.m. for the family dinner but the husband and their children would arrive late because of traffic congestion in the metropolis.

He suggested that families could have a meal together at least once a week.

He cited an example when families have many television sets, computers and other gadgets that distract them from having a meal together.

“So instead of coming together in one table, each one takes his or her own plate. I go to my television. I go to my computer. I go to my iPod. And then we all eat but not together, as a meal,” he said.

“So we can have, for example, at least once a week, a time when, okay no television, we face each other,” he added. RC