Pope Francis wants youngsters to BRB from their cellphones at the dinner table, warning that the lack of face-to-face communication with adults could result in “war.”

“When we’re at the table, when we are speaking to others on our telephones, it’s the start of war because there is no dialogue,” the 80-year-old pontiff told students last week at Roma Tre in Rome.

The pope also chided today’s youths for their lack of manners, saying that instead of a friendly “good morning,” they opt for an “anonymous ‘ciao, ciao.’”

“We need to lower the tone a bit, speak less and listen more,” he said.

Francis added that “dialogue which brings hearts closer together” is “a medicine against violence.”

On Sunday, while speaking to children during a papal visit to a Rome parish, Francis admitted that cardinals don’t always pick the smartest person as their holiness.

He said the chosen pontiff “perhaps isn’t the most intelligent, the shrewdest, the quickest to do what has to be done” but that he “is the one who God wants for that moment for the church.”

With Post wires