In a Christmas message, Pope Francis criticizes gossip among Vatican employees

Pope Francis told Vatican officials on Saturday to stop talking bad about each other, as he once again used his own annual Christmas greetings advising gossipers and whispering among his closest associates.

A breathless and agitated Francis, who just turned 88, urged the bishops to speak well of each other and humbly examine their consciences. It’s Christmas holiday season.

“The church community lives in such a happy harmony and fraternal harmony that its members live a life of humility, rejecting bad thinking and talking bad about others,” said Francis. “Gossip is an evil that destroys public health, sickens people’s hearts and leads to nothing. People say it very well: Gossip is nothing.”

“Be aware of this,” he added.

Francis’ annual Christmas address to priests, bishops and cardinals serving in the Vatican Curia has now become a lesson in humility – and humiliation – as Francis offers a public dressing down of some of the sins at work at church headquarters. The Catholic Church.

In the most stinging program, in 2014, Francis listed the “15 diseases of the Curia,” in which he accused bishops of using their Vatican jobs to seize power and wealth. He accused them of living double lives of “pretense” and forgetting—due to “spiritual Alzheimer’s”—that they should be happy men of God.

In 2022, Francis warned them that the devil is hiding among them, a “good demon” who works for people who have a strict, holier-than-thou way of living the Catholic faith.

This year, Francis revisited the theme he often warns against: gossiping and gossiping of the people behind them. It was indicative of the sometimes toxic atmosphere in closed spaces such as the Vatican or workplaces where gossip and criticism circulate but are rarely aired publicly.

Francis has long welcomed frank and open debates and even accepted criticism of his work. But he has urged critics to say it to his face, not behind his back.

Francis opened his address on Saturday with a reminder the destruction of the war in Gazawhen he said that his grandfather was unable to enter because of the Israeli bombings.

“Yesterday children were bombed, this is cruelty, it is not a war,” he said.

The annual appointment begins Francis’ busy Christmas schedule, this year made even more difficult by the start of the Vatican’s Holy Year on Christmas Eve. The Jubilee is expected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to Rome by 2025, and Francis has a dizzying calendar of events to attend to.

After speaking to the Vatican clergy, Francis gave a low-key speech to Vatican employees gathered in the city’s main audience hall and their families. Francis thanked them for their work and urged them to make sure they take time to play with their children and visit their grandparents.

“If you have some problems, tell your superiors, we want to solve them,” he added at the end. “Doing this through dialogue, not peace. Together we will try to solve the difficulties.”

It was apparently referring to reports of growing unrest among Vatican employees that have been called by the Vatican Workers Union, the closest thing the Vatican has to a labor union. In recent months, the organization has expressed concern about the health of the Vatican’s pension system and fears of cost cuts, and demanded that the Vatican leadership listen to workers’ grievances.

Earlier this year 49 employees of the Vatican Museums – the Holy See’s main source of funding – filed a class-action lawsuit in a Vatican court complaining about staff hardship, overtime and working conditions.

Unlike Italy, which has strong labor laws protecting workers’ rights, Vatican employees often find they have few legal remedies available to them when problems arise. Vatican employment is often sought after by Italian Catholics: Apart from the idea of ​​working for the church, Vatican employment offers tax-free benefits and access to below-market housing.