Gossip is a “forbidden language” in the Vatican, because it is a
language that generates evil.
This was a main focus of Pope Francis’
homily at a special Mass celebrated in the Lourdes Grotto of the Vatican
Gardens on Saturday morning for the Vatican’s Corps of Gendarmes – the
police force tasked with maintaining order and security within the walls
of Vatican City.
Pope
Francis said, “I ask you not only to defend [the gates], the doors, the
windows of the Vatican,” - a necessary and important work as well - but
to defend “as your patron saint Saint Michael,” the doors of the hearts
of those who work in the Vatican , where temptation “enters” exactly as
elsewhere :
“There is a temptation – I would like to say it is thus
for everyone , even for me , for everyone – a temptation that the devil
likes very much: that against unity, when hidden dangers work directly
against the unity of those who live and work in the Vatican – and the
devil tries to create internal war, a kind of civil war and spiritual,
is it not? It is a war that is not waged with the weapons that we
recognize: it is a war waged with the tongue.”
"We ask St. Michael to
help us in this war : never speak ill of each other, never open your
ears to gossip. And if [one hears] someone gossiping, stop him! [Say] ,
‘Here there can be none of that: walk out of St. Anne’s Gate. Go outside
and talk there! Here you cannot!’ That’s it, isn’t it? The good seed
yes: speak well of one another , yes, but [do not sow the poison seed]
of gossip.”