Fr. David Sherry
District Superior of Canada

Dear Reader,

It was not unknown at our school that, when I was within earshot, a boy would try to get a reaction. “This school sucks,” he would say, or “we’re living in a prison” and sometimes, strangely, “smartphones are the devil.” The first two were easily explained: to certain boys, anywhere you have discipline “sucks”; any place that has rules is a prison; but the smartphone?

I had a theory on that one. The devil not only tries to get you to sin by saying that bad things are good; he also tempts by saying good things are bad. For example, “revenge is sweet” is a fairly straightforward instance of the first kind; “marriage is bad” is an example of the second. The devilish thinking is that if something good or at least obviously indifferent is said by authority to be bad, then the would-be sinner has a good excuse to ignore rules on that thing and then throw out all the other rules of authority as unreasonable. “My parents or school have rules about smartphones because they say that they are evil. That is clearly untrue, therefore I don’t need to listen to them about anything.” As such, if I acknowledged “smartphones are the devil” as true, he has caught me out in untruth and can ignore me. So, dutifully and invariably, I would say “smartphones are indifferent; it’s their use that makes them good or bad, etc.” You get the picture.

Now it is unlikely (I blush to admit) that any of my former students read The Angelus. It is even less likely that one has persevered until this final page. Therefore, gentle reader, I will now tell you what I never told them.

In the end, all smartphones show a cloven hoof. The teenager with his own smartphone has got a limitless supply of high-quality drugs which he can and will imbibe daily. For boys, it is a grave occasion of sin against purity (even if the phone has a filter) and try as he might, he cannot resist the temptation to use it as a timewasting toy. For girls it is a grave temptation to vanity: who’s noticing my selfies, calling, texting, liking me? And if they’re not, why do they hate me? And for all, it is vanity and distraction and worldliness at a time that forms habits for life.

The solution—damn all smartphones to hell? A Puritan would love nothing better. But then, so would the devil. If the thing is a necessity, explain to your teenager that just as he is not allowed to drive until he is old enough to bear the responsibility, so neither should he have a smartphone. Then, perhaps, at age 17 or 18, train him how to use a smartphone—with a filter, and as a tool. And with fear and trembling.

Fr. David Sherry