Bishop urges families to restore dialogue, listening at home

Posted by ReyFort Media

A Catholic bishop urged families Friday to restore conversation at home, saying that many households are losing the ability to truly listen to one another.

Speaking during a Mass for a national conference on family and life in Butuan City, Bishop Cosme Damian Almedilla described what he called a growing crisis of dialogue within families.

“People live under the same roof but not in the same heart anymore,” Almedilla said. “They speak but they do not listen.”

The Butuan bishop said modern family life is increasingly marked by distraction, emotional distance and weakened relationships, even when members remain physically present.

He stressed that authentic presence requires attentiveness — particularly the willingness to listen patiently amid disagreements, fatigue and daily pressures.

“Around the family table, we learn to dialogue,” Almedilla said, noting that conversations are often replaced by silence, screens or superficial exchanges.

He warned that the erosion of listening within households has wider consequences, shaping how individuals relate in communities, workplaces and church life.

“If we cannot listen at home, we will not listen in the parish,” he said. “If we cannot accompany one another in our families, we can never accompany others.”

Almedilla described listening as essential to healing and reconciliation, especially when conflicts, misunderstandings and tensions inevitably arise within family relationships.

He encouraged families to view dialogue not as confrontation but as an expression of love, humility and mutual respect.

“Love means, ‘I am here with you,’” he said.

Almedilla said rebuilding conversation at home can help counter what he called a deeper poverty affecting many families: loneliness and the feeling of being unheard.

The Mass opened the second day of the four-day conference organized by the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

More than 400 participants, including bishops, priests, consecrated persons and lay leaders from dioceses across the country attended the gathering. (CBCP News)