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Pope Francis has issued a strong warning to fathers who work long hours. He criticised workaholic dads for being 'symbolically absent' from families and for making their children 'orphans'. The Pope was speaking to a congregation at the Vatican when he made his plea for fathers to spend more time with their children and get more involved in family life. He said the absence of fathers in the family is one of the reasons that children have problems growing up. He said fathers who focused too much on their jobs was a cause of children and adolescents getting into trouble.

The Pope said fathers being obsessed with their jobs and not spending time with their family was very common. He said: "Fathers are so focused on themselves…and at times their personal fulfillment, that they even forget their families, leaving children…to their own devices." He added: "The feeling of orphanhood experienced by many young people is worse than we might think." He said children are orphans because their fathers are absent from the home, and they do not act like fathers when they are at home. He warned that fatherless families could be accepted as the norm.