Originally published at The Catholic Thing
Pope Francis has told Vatican bureaucrats to stop speaking ill of one another, as he once again used his annual Christmas greetings to admonish backstabbing and gossiping among his closest collaborators. A wheezing and congested-sounding Francis, who just turned 88, urged the prelates to speak well of one another and to undertake a humble examination of their own consciences in the Christmas holiday season. “Gossip is an evil that destroys social life,” the pope said. It “sickens people’s hearts and leads to nothing. The people say it very well: Gossip is zero. . . /Beware of this.”
