From the Pastor's Desk: Archives

February 1, 2015

Gossip

It is one of the small miracles of Pope Francis' pontificate that he rarely makes morality seem tedious. Listening to Pope Francis, you want to be a better Christian, not because you feel guilty, but because you want to accept his invitation to really be Christian.

Pope Francis doesn't like gossip. He has spoken about it several times and last September he went so far as to say that those who judge or speak badly about others are "Christian murderers."

The pope knows what he's talking about. When he was elected pope, some of his fellow Jesuits dug up reports of his authoritarian behavior as the Jesuit provincial in Argentina. That information turned out to be 40 years old! Do any of us stay the same for 40 years?

Gossip is a sin that the pope wants us to confront head on. He sees gossip as a handy tool for the devil and Francis sees the devil not as a symbol but as real force for evil in the world. Gossip is the devil at work as far as Francis is concerned.

So what should we do about that? Last year in February, Francis said, "I tell you the truth. I am convinced that if each one of us would purposely avoid gossip, at the end, we would become a saint! It's a beautiful path!"

That's probably easier said than done but we have to start somewhere. It may not be the easiest path to walk for those of us who enjoy the odd bit of juicy information about our neighbor. But if we trust in Jesus, and lay aside "all evil speakings" (as it says in 1 Pt 2:1), just maybe gossip will give way to the witness of love.

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