A monastic priory in Tuscany has urged monks living in a secluded retreat to avoid using social media and streaming services, arguing that their rooms are sacred spaces for prayer and “not for Netflix or other platforms”.
Father Matteo Ferrari, former general of the Camaldolese community and monk of the Camaldolese monastery in Arezzo, Tuscany, said such digital technologies were “specifically designed to create addiction” and “must be completely avoided”.
Ferrari, 51, published a lengthy letter on Facebook in which he said watching movies online was a “challenge for monks and religious life” while engaging with social media such as Instagram and TikTok. He added: “We can’t pretend this challenge doesn’t exist.”
Located in the middle of a national park and founded by St. Romuald of Ravenna in the early 11th century, the Asylum of Camaldoli is home to nine monks. The main purpose of the retreat is for the monks to spend time in prayer and holy reading and in their private rooms, in deep meditation or contemplation.
“If the room is transformed into a cinema, where does our asceticism and Romualdine spirituality end?” asked Ferrari. He warns that real “cinephile addictions” exist and can lead monks to “become film experts rather than seekers of God.”
He said it is “very healthy” for monks to spend their time alone “thinking about moments of community”.
In an interview with Tuscany’s regional newspaper La Nazion, Ferrari said his aim was not to blame the monks, but to invite them to “meditate on a theme that permeates everyone’s life and cannot be ignored”.
In 2022, the late Pope Francis urged seminarians to use social media to “step forward, to communicate,” warning them of the dangers, especially of digital obscenity.
“I don’t say, ‘Raise your hand if you have had at least one experience of this,'” Francis said. “But if each one of you thinks you have had an experience or a temptation … this is the vice of many. Many laymen, many women and priests and nuns too.”
