“Above all, may [Martin de Porres] encourage you to practice your profession in a Christian style, treating customers with kindness and courtesy, and always offering them a good and encouraging word, avoiding giving in to the temptation of gossip that can easily creep into your work environment, as we all know.”
One has to wonder if Francis became aware of the epidemic of gossiping among hair stylist and barbers when he began offering free haircuts to the homeless in the colonnade of St. Peter’s Square? Will Francis put the Swiss Guards on the case whose mission has been reconstituted by him, ‘to combat gossip’.
Why do Francis and his inner-circle have a hang-up with fecal matter?
Maradiaga also stated, “The psalmist asked: ‘Who will be pleasing in your eyes, Lord?’ And he answered: ‘the one who proceeds honestly, the one who acts with justice, the one who is sincere in his words and with his tongue does not discredit anyone.’”
"The worst bomb inside the Vatican is gossip," which "threatens the life of the church and the life of (the Vatican) every day," he said, because it "sows destruction" and "destroys the lives of others."
While there are many religious and laypeople in the Vatican who are "sowing good seed," the devil is still getting his way by using others "to sow weeds."
Even the pope is not immune to this temptation, he said; it's a danger "for me, too," because "the devil gives you that yearning."
So in addition to looking for the usual security threats, the pope told the security guards to also crack down on backstabbing and courageously call people out.
Stop them in their tracks and say, "Please sir, please ma'am, please father, please sister, please your Excellency, please your Eminence, please Holy Father, don't gossip; that's not allowed here," the pope said.
Christ may be resurrected but Francis doesn't want you to rejoice in it. For in this Easter season he has released another Apostolic Exhortation full of his banal modernist thoughts and in the process heaped a Cross onto the backs of pewsitters that take the Novus Ordo seriously. This rumored encyclical instead turned out to be an Apostolic Exhortation but don’t worry it’s filled with a strong condemnation of Catholics neopelagians. The burdensome Gaudete et exsultate (Rejoice and be glad) was launched with its own video trailer. Watch it and see what you will learn from reading the document.
some of the excerpted lowlights
(by no means is it to be considered exhaustive)
(bold is ours for emphasis, our comments in italics)
A contemplative life is bad
26. It is not healthy to love silence while fleeing interaction with others, to want peace and quiet while avoiding activity, to seek prayer while disdaining service. Everything can be accepted and integrated into our life in this world, and become a part of our path to holiness. We are called to be contemplatives even in the midst of action, and to grow in holiness by responsibly and generously carrying out our proper mission.
Traditionalists (aka pelagians) are bad
58. Not infrequently, contrary to the promptings of the Spirit, the life of the Church can become a museum piece or the possession of a select few. This can occur when some groups of Christians give excessive importance to certain rules, customs or ways of acting. The Gospel then tends to be reduced and constricted, deprived of its simplicity, allure and savour. This may well be a subtle form of pelagianism, for it appears to subject the life of grace to certain human structures. It can affect groups, movements and communities, and it explains why so often they begin with an intense life in the Spirit, only to end up fossilized… or corrupt.
Francis is an oppressor because he apes the Faith
94. Persecutions are not a reality of the past, for today too we experience them, whether by the shedding of blood, as is the case with so many contemporary martyrs, or by more subtle means, by slander and lies. Jesus calls us blessed when people “utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” (Mt 5:11). At other times, persecution can take the form of gibes that try to caricature our faith and make us seem ridiculous.
Francis want charity without discrimination for one’s responsibilities
98. If I encounter a person sleeping outdoors on a cold night, I can view him or her as an annoyance, an idler, an obstacle in my path, a troubling sight, a problem for politicians to sort out, or even a piece of refuse cluttering a public space. Or I can respond with faith and charity, and see in this person a human being with a dignity identical to my own, a creature infinitely loved by the Father, an image of God, a brother or sister redeemed by Jesus Christ. That is what it is to be a Christian! Can holiness somehow be understood apart from this lively recognition of the dignity of each human being?[82]
Don’t fret over communism and stop protesting abortion so strongly
101. The other harmful ideological error is found in those who find suspect the social engagement of others, seeing it as superficial, worldly, secular, materialist, communist or populist. Or they relativize it, as if there are other more important matters, or the only thing that counts is one particular ethical issue or cause that they themselves defend. Our defence of the innocent unborn, for example, needs to be clear, firm and passionate, for at stake is the dignity of a human life, which is always sacred and demands love for each person, regardless of his or her stage of development. Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and elderly exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery, and every form of rejection.[84] We cannot uphold an ideal of holiness that would ignore injustice in a world where some revel, spend with abandon and live only for the latest consumer goods, even as others look on from afar, living their entire lives in abject poverty.
Welcome the invading Moslem hordes into your countries
102. We often hear it said that, with respect to relativism and the flaws of our present world, the situation of migrants, for example, is a lesser issue. Some Catholics consider it a secondary issue compared to the “grave” bioethical questions. That a politician looking for votes might say such a thing is understandable, but not a Christian, for whom the only proper attitude is to stand in the shoes of those brothers and sisters of ours who risk their lives to offer a future to their children. Can we not realize that this is exactly what Jesus demands of us, when he tells us that in welcoming the stranger we welcome him (cf. Mt 25:35)? Saint Benedict did so readily, and though it might have “complicated” the life of his monks, he ordered that all guests who knocked at the monastery door be welcomed “like Christ”,[85] with a gesture of veneration;[86] the poor and pilgrims were to be met with “the greatest care and solicitude”.[87]
103. A similar approach is found in the Old Testament: “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you yourselves were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Ex 22:21). “When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Lev 19:33-34). This is not a notion invented by some Pope, or a momentary fad. In today’s world too, we are called to follow the path of spiritual wisdom proposed by the prophet Isaiah to show what is pleasing to God. “Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn” (58:7-8).
Blogs such as Call Me Jorge... are bad
115. Christians too can be caught up in networks of verbal violence through the internet and the various forums of digital communication. Even in Catholic media, limits can be overstepped, defamation and slander can become commonplace, and all ethical standards and respect for the good name of others can be abandoned. The result is a dangerous dichotomy, since things can be said there that would be unacceptable in public discourse, and people look to compensate for their own discontent by lashing out at others. It is striking that at times, in claiming to uphold the other commandments, they completely ignore the eighth, which forbids bearing false witness or lying, and ruthlessly vilify others. Here we see how the unguarded tongue, set on fire by hell, sets all things ablaze (cf. Jas 3:6).
A cloistered life isn't good
140. When we live apart from others, it is very difficult to fight against concupiscence, the snares and temptations of the devil and the selfishness of the world. Bombarded as we are by so many enticements, we can grow too isolated, lose our sense of reality and inner clarity, and easily succumb.
Discernment is the key to everything & change is good except when it’s not good. If we block change we are blocking the Holy Spirit.
166. How can we know if something comes from the Holy Spirit or if it stems from the spirit of the world or the spirit of the devil? The only way is through discernment, which calls for something more than intelligence or common sense. It is a gift which we must implore. If we ask with confidence that the Holy Spirit grant us this gift, and then seek to develop it through prayer, reflection, reading and good counsel, then surely we will grow in this spiritual endowment.
An urgent need
167. The gift of discernment has become all the more necessary today, since contemporary life offers immense possibilities for action and distraction, and the world presents all of them as valid and good. All of us, but especially the young, are immersed in a culture of zapping. We can navigate simultaneously on two or more screens and interact at the same time with two or three virtual scenarios. Without the wisdom of discernment, we can easily become prey to every passing trend.
168. This is all the more important when some novelty presents itself in our lives. Then we have to decide whether it is new wine brought by God or an illusion created by the spirit of this world or the spirit of the devil. At other times, the opposite can happen, when the forces of evil induce us not to change, to leave things as they are, to opt for a rigid resistance to change. Yet that would be to block the working of the Spirit. We are free, with the freedom of Christ. Still, he asks us to examine what is within us – our desires, anxieties, fears and questions – and what takes place all around us – “the signs of the times” – and thus to recognize the paths that lead to complete freedom. “Test everything; hold fast to what is good” (1 Thess 5:21).
Best footnote ever
[73] Detraction and calumny are acts of terrorism: a bomb is thrown, it explodes and the attacker walks away calm and contented. This is completely different from the nobility of those who speak to others face to face, serenely and frankly, out of genuine concern for their good.
Who wrote this? Was it Francis’ perverted ghostwriter, ‘Smoochie’ Fernandez? It has to be because it’s as if the majority of the document is a copy-and-paste job from Fernandez’s writings and the speeches of Francis. It reads like a new age book filled with sophisms. Don’t worry, if you take ‘Gaudete et exsultate’ to heart, ‘Smoochie’ and Francis will heal you with kisses and spiritual hugs, unless you practice the Catholic Faith...so rejoice and be glad!
“There is something that does not take peace away from me, but which does hurt me, and that is gossip. I don’t like gossip, it makes me sad. It often spreads in closed-off worlds. When it happens in a world of priests and religious I want to ask: how is this possible? You left everything, you decided not to have a wife next to you, you didn’t marry, you had no children… Do you want to finish as a gossiping old bachelor? Oh, my God, what a sad life!”
“I never call a difficulty a “resistance” for to do so would be to renounce discernment. I prefer to discern. It is easy to say there is resistance and not realize that a moment of conflict is actually bringing out some crumbs of truth. So I think that such conflicts can help me. I often ask a person: “What do you think?” This would help me to relativize many things that at first sight might seem like resistances but are actually a reaction that comes from a misunderstanding, from the fact that some things need to be repeated, better explained… This might be my defect, the fact that sometimes I take things for granted and make a logical jump without explaining the process clearly, for I am convinced that the person I am talking to has quickly understood my reasoning. I am aware that, if I go back and explain things better, then at that point the other will say, “Ah, yes, agreed…” All in all, it is very helpful for me to examine the meaning of conflicts carefully. But when I am aware that there is true resistance, certainly, I am displeased. Some say to me that it is normal that there is resistance when someone wants to make changes. The famous “this has always been done this way” reigns everywhere: “It has always been done this way, why should we change? If things are the way they are, they have always been done this way, so why change?” This a great temptation that we all faced in the period after the Second Vatican Council. The resistances are still present and try to tell us to relativize the Council, to water it down. I am even sadder when someone joins a campaign of resistance. And alas I see this too. You asked me about resistances, and I cannot deny that there are some, then. I see them and I know them.
There are doctrinal resistances that you know about better than I. For my own good I do not read the content of internet sites of this so-called “resistance.” I know who they are, I know the groups, but I do not read them for my own mental health. If there is something very serious, they tell me about it so that I know. You know them… It is displeasing, but you have to go on. Historians tell us that it takes a century for a Council to put down its roots. We are halfway there.
Sometimes we ask: but that man, that woman, have they read the Council? And there are people who have not read the Council. And if they have read it, they have not understood it. Fifty years on! We studied philosophy before the Council, but we had the advantage of studying theology after it. We lived through the change of perspective, and the Council documents were already there.
When I perceive resistance, I seek dialogue whenever it is possible; but some resistance comes from people who believe they possess the true doctrine and accuse you of being a heretic. When I cannot see spiritual goodness in what these people say or write, I simply pray for them. I find it sad, but I won’t settle on this sentiment for the sake of my own mental well-being.”
“I think that one of the things that the Church most needs today is discernment. This is put very clearly in the pastoral perspectives and objectives of Amoris Laetitia. We are used to a “yes you can or no you can’t” mentality. The morality used in Amoris Laetitia is the more classic Thomist morals, that is, the one from St. Thomas himself not the decadent version of later Thomism that some have studied. I too received a formation in the way of thinking of “yes you can or no you can’t,” or “up to this point you can, up to here you can’t.” I wonder if you remember [and here the pope looks at one of those present] that Colombian Jesuit who came to teach morals at the Collegio Massimo? When he taught the sixth commandment someone dared to ask: “Can a man and a woman who are engaged to be married kiss each other?” If they could they kiss each other! Do you get it? And he replied: “Yes they can! No problem! They just have to put a tissue between them.” This is a forma mentis (a way of thinking) for doing theology generally. It is a forma mentis that is based on a limit. And we bear the consequences.
If you take a look at the panorama of reactions to Amoris Laetitia you will see that the strongest criticisms of the exhortation are against the eighth chapter: “Can a divorced person receive communion, or not?” But Amoris Laetitia goes in a completely different direction; it does not enter into these distinctions. It raises the issue of discernment. This was already at the heart of truly great classic Thomist morals. So the contribution that I want from the Society is to help the Church to grow in discernment. Today, the Church needs to grow in discernment. And to us the Lord has given this family grace to discern. I do not know if you know this, but I have said it during other similar meetings with Jesuits: at the end of Fr. Ledóchowski’s time as superior general, the highest work of the spirituality of the Society was the Epitome. Everything you had to do was all regulated in an enormous mix of the Formula of the Institution, the Constitutions and the rules. There were even rules for the cook. And it was all mixed, without following a hierarchy. Fr. Ledóchowski was a great friend of the abbot general of the Benedictines and once he went to visit him bringing along this volume. Shortly after, the abbot sought him out and said: “Father General, with this you have killed the Society of Jesus.” And he was right, for the Epitome took away any room for discernment.”
“Thank you. The word “reconciliation” is not only manipulated, it is demolished. Today – not just here for this applies in other Latin American countries too – the word “reconciliation” has been emptied of its power. When St. Paul describes the reconciliation of all with God, in Christ, he delivers a strong word. Today, however, “reconciliation” has become wrapping paper. It’s been emptied out. It’s been weakened not only of its religious content but also of its human content, that is, what we share when we look each other in the eye. Instead, today, it is being done under the counter.
I would say that these stunts should not be accepted, nor should we struggle against them. We must say to those who adopt it in its weaker form: use it, but we won’t use it, for the concept has been demolished. We do need to continue to work, however, seeking to reconcile people. From below, from the sides, with a good word, with a visit, with a course to help understanding, with the weapon of prayer that will give us strength and make miracles, but especially with the human weapon of persuasion, which is humility. Persuasion acts through humility.”
“Yesterday I spoke to the priests and religious men and women of Chile in the cathedral of Santiago. This is the greatest desolation that the Church is suffering. It brings shame, but we need to remember that shame is also a very Ignatian grace, a grace that St. Ignatius asks us to make in the three colloquies of the first week. And so let us take it as a grace and be fully ashamed. We have to love the Church with her wounds. Many wounds…
Let me tell you something. On March 24 Argentina remembers the military coup d’état, the dictatorship, the desaparecidos (the disappeared)… and every March 24 the Plaza de Mayo fills to remember it. One year, on March 24, I left the archbishop’s house and went to serve as confessor for the Carmelite sisters. On my return I took the subway and got out six blocks away from Plaza de Mayo. The Plaza was full … and I walked those six blocks to enter by the side. When I was about to cross a road, there was a couple with a child of two or three years, and the child ran ahead. The father said to him: “Come, come, come here… Be careful of the pedophiles!” How shameful I felt! What shame! They didn’t realize that I was the archbishop, I was a priest and… what shame!
Occasionally there are “consolation prizes,” and someone might even say: “OK. Look at the statistics … I don’t know … 70 percent of pedophiles are in the family setting, people known to the family. Then at the gyms and in the swimming pools. The percentage of pedophiles who are Catholic priests does not reach 2 percent, it’s 1.6 percent. It is not that much.” But it is terrible even if only one of our brothers is such! For God anointed him to sanctify children and adults, and instead of making them holy he has destroyed them. It’s horrible! We need to listen to what someone who has been abused feels. On Fridays – sometimes this is known and sometimes it is not known – I normally meet some of them. In Chile I also had such a meeting. As their process is very hard, they remain annihilated. Annihilated!
For the Church this is a great humiliation. It shows not only our fragility, but also, let us say so clearly, our level of hypocrisy. In cases of corruption, in the sense of abuse of an institutional type, it is notable that there are some newer Congregations whose founders have fallen into these abuses. These cases are public. Pope Benedict had to suppress a large male Congregation. The founder had spread such habits. He abused young and immature religious men. It was a Congregation that had a female branch, and the female founder had also spread such habits. Benedict had started the process on the women’s branch. I had to suppress it. You here have many painful cases. But it is curious that the phenomenon of abuse touched some new, prosperous Congregations.
Abuse in these Congregations is always the fruit of a mentality tied to power that has to be healed in its malicious roots. And I will add: there are three levels of abuse that come together: abuse of authority (mixing the internal forum with the external forum), sexual abuse and an economic mess.
There is always money involved. The devil enters through the wallet. Ignatius places the first step of the devil’s temptations in riches…then come vanity and pride, but first of all, it’s riches. The three levels come together very often in the new Congregations that have fallen into this problem of abuse.
Forgive my lack of humility in suggesting that you read what I said to the Chileans. That material is more carefully articulated and reasoned than what comes to me now spontaneously.”
“Thank you. I’ll reply with just one word. It might seem that I say nothing, but instead I say everything. And the word is “Council.” Pick up again the Second Vatican Council, and read Lumen Gentium. Yesterday, with the bishops of Chile – or was it the day before, I don’t even know what day it is! – I encouraged them to declericalize. If there is something that is very clear, it is the awareness of the faithful holy people of God, infallible in credendo, as the Council teaches us. This brings the Church forward. The grace of being missionary and proclaiming Jesus Christ comes to us in baptism. From there we can move forward…
We should never forget that evangelization is done by the Church as a people of God. The Lord wants an evangelizing Church, I see that clearly. This came from my heart, in simplicity, in the few minutes I spoke during the general congregations before the conclave. A Church that goes out, a Church that goes out proclaiming Jesus Christ. After or in that very moment when she adores and fills herself with him. I always use an example tied to the Book of Revelation where we read: “I am at the door and knock. If someone opens I will enter” (cf. Rev 3:20). The Lord is outside and wants to come in. Sometimes the Lord is inside and is knocking because he wants us to let him out! The Lord is asking us to be a Church outside, a Church that goes out. Church as a field hospital… Ah, the wounds of the people of God! Sometimes the people of God is wounded by a rigid, moralist catechism, of the “you can or you can’t” variety, or by a lack of testimony.
A poor Church for the poor! The poor are not a theoretical formula of the communist party. The poor are the heart of the Gospel. They are the center of the Gospel. We cannot preach the Gospel without the poor. So I say to you: it is along this line that I feel the Spirit is leading us. And there are strong resistances. But I must also say that for me the fact that resistances arise is a good sign. It is a sign that we are on the right road, this is the road. Otherwise the devil would not bother to resist.
I would say these are the criteria: poverty, being missionaries, the conscience of the faithful people of God… In Latin America, particularly, you should ask: “But where have our people been creative?” With some deviations, yes, but it has been creative in its popular piety. And why have our people been able to be creative in popular piety? Because the clergy weren’t interested, and so they let them do it… the people went on ahead…
And then, yes, what the Church is asking today of the Society – this I have said often, and Spadaro, who publishes these things, has grown tired of writing it – is to teach discernment with humility. Yes, as pontiff I ask this of you officially. Generally, above all, we who are part of the religious setting of life as priests and bishops often show little ability to discern, we don’t know how to do it for we have been educated with another theology that is more formal. We go as far as “you can or you can’t,” as I said to the Chilean Jesuits concerning the resistances to Amoris Laetitia. Some people are reducing the entire fruit of two synods – all the work that has been done – to “you can or can’t.” Help us to discern then. Certainly, someone who is not discerning cannot teach others to discern. And to be discerning you have to enter into practice, you have to examine yourself. You have to start with yourself.”
Preaching “cannot be lukewarm. Preaching always - let me say this - “slaps”, it is a slap, a slap that moves you and carries you forward”.
And Paul himself says, “The madness of preaching. It is madness, because to say that God became man and then was crucified and then resurrected...In preaching faith there is always a “shred of madness”. And temptation is that false common sense, that mediocrity, “But, no, let’s not joke...”, the lukewarm faith”.
...“But the way they love each other!People told the first disciples recognizing their Christianity. Today, “one goes to some parishes and hears, what this one says about that one, and that one about this one.... Instead of thinking about how much the love each other, it makes you say, “But the way they “skin” each other”, “they are ripping each other.... the tongue is a knife to skin the other!And how can you transmit faith with such a gossip polluted air, full of slander?
“I’ve said this many times: do you know what a gossip nun is? A terrorist! Gossip is a bomb: you throw it, it destroys everything and then you leave. Don’t be terrorist Sisters no!”
“I heard it from some houses here, that people working in the Curia are living in great fear: If they say one small or harmless critical word, some spies will pass the comments directly to the Holy Father, and the falsely accused people don’t have any chance to defend themselves. These people, who are speaking bad words and lies against other persons, are disturbing and disrupting the good faith, the good name of others whom they are calling their brothers.”
Francis with Ulf Jonsson, director of the Swedish Jesuit magazine Signum.
If there is one thing you can say about Francis, it is that he never shuts his mouth. Give him a microphone and off he goes. When he sees a reporter, he shares his inner most thoughts no matter how banal or anti-Catholic they are. Francis recently had another interview with La Civiltà Cattolica. This interview was conducted by Ulf Jonsson, who was assisted by Antonio Spadaro. Some of the topics discussed in this latest talk are:
Lutherans & the 500th Anniversary of Luther’s Revolt,
Francis’ past history with Lutherans,
What the Novus Ordo church can learn from the Lutherans,
Dialogue with Lutherans,
Terrorism & Gossip,
Idolatry & Religion,
The “blood of martyrs” or “ecumenism of blood”,
The future of the Novus Ordo church,
and so much more!
A small sample of the nonsense is below. See if you can make any sense of this rubbish!
For those who want to torment themselves and read the full interview click below:
“I have often talked about the rumors as "terrorism", of how you can kill a person with the language. If this applies to individuals, with family or at work, it is all the more true for journalists, because their voices can reach everyone, and this is a very powerful weapon. Journalism should always respect the dignity of the person. An article published today or tomorrow will be replaced by another, but the life of a person unjustly maligned may be destroyed forever. Of course criticism is legitimate, and I will say necessary, as well as the denunciation of evil, but this must always be done respecting the other, his life, his affections. Journalism can not become a ''weapon of destruction" of people and even nations. Neither does he have to feed the fear in front of changes or phenomena such as forced migration by war or hunger. I hope that more and more and everywhere journalism is one building tool, a common good factor, an accelerator of the reconciliation process; who knows how to reject the temptation to foment a clash with a language that fan the flames of division, and instead favors the culture of encounter...”
From 2015, Libero an Italian newspaper’s headline reads, “Attack in Paris: Islamic Bastards”. The newspaper was sued for using this language and it is the type of article Francis was criticizing in his address to Italian journalists.
"The worst bomb inside the Vatican is gossip," which "threatens the life of the church and the life of (the Vatican) every day," he said, because it "sows destruction" and "destroys the lives of others."
While there are many religious and laypeople in the Vatican who are "sowing good seed," the devil is still getting his way by using others "to sow weeds."
Even the pope is not immune to this temptation, he said; it's a danger "for me, too," because "the devil gives you that yearning."
So in addition to looking for the usual security threats, the pope told the security guards to also crack down on backstabbing and courageously call people out.
Stop them in their tracks and say, "Please sir, please ma'am, please father, please sister, please your Excellency, please your Eminence, please Holy Father, don't gossip; that's not allowed here," the pope said.
Another one from you can't make this stuff up file in the absurd box! Francis lives in a world of his own imaginings.
Pope launches alarm, tells Vatican security force to be 'gossip police' By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The biggest threat facing the Vatican isn't a bomb or bullet from the outside, but the insidious work of mischief-makers within, who plant discord and resentment, Pope Francis told the Vatican's security force.
"There are bombs in here, very dangerous bombs in here," he told security personnel. "Please, keep your eyes open, because in the darkness of so many wicked lives, the enemy has sown weeds," he said in his homily.
To help celebrate the Vatican security service's patron saint, St. Michael the archangel, the pope celebrated Mass for security personnel in the chapel of the office governing Vatican City State Sept. 27. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, published excerpts from the homily Sept. 29, the feast of the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.
The pope told his own "guardian angels" that their vocation is "to safeguard this state" so the church and the pope "can be free" to carry out their mission. In addition to the more colorful Swiss Guard, the Vatican's other security body is its own police force, the gendarme corps. The corps of about 130 men is responsible for papal security, crowd control in St. Peter's Square and safety, law and order within the Vatican.
The pope said a good guardian, like the archangel, "has the courage to get rid of demons" and has the intelligence to be able to pick them out from the crowd. "He can't be, excuse my terminology, an idiot; he has to be quick on the uptake and alert."
He said he knows their job is to be like sentinels, keeping watch and guarding entrances, "doors and windows so no bombs get in."
But, "I want to tell you something a bit sad; there are bombs in here" and it doesn't matter if it's "a homemade bomb or an atomic bomb," every single one is "dangerous" and "there are many."
"The worst bomb inside the Vatican is gossip," which "threatens the life of the church and the life of (the Vatican) every day," he said, because it "sows destruction" and "destroys the lives of others."
While there are many religious and laypeople in the Vatican who are "sowing good seed," the devil is still getting his way by using others "to sow weeds." Even the pope is not immune to this temptation, he said; it's a danger "for me, too," because "the devil gives you that yearning."
So in addition to looking for the usual security threats, the pope told the security guards to also crack down on backstabbing and courageously call people out.
Stop them in their tracks and say, "Please sir, please ma'am, please father, please sister, please your Excellency, please your Eminence, please Holy Father, don't gossip; that's not allowed here," the pope said.
Whatever gripes or problems people have, they should take them directly to the people involved without also complaining to the world, he said.
The sower of weeds meets a bitter end, he said, in "burning furnaces" and condemned to "disgrace and eternal abomination."
But thanks to the security police's added vigilance and help, "the final word written about our lives will be, 'He was a good person. He sowed good seed,' and not, 'He was dreadful, he planted bombs of discord' -- that would be very sad."
No more is the sweltering Roman summer heat causing Francis to hold his Wednesday general audience inside the monstrosity known as the Paul VI Audience Hall. The show is now back in St. Peter's Square, where the adoring mobs can listen to Francis tell them such modernist gems as:
Dis-unity is a sin!
Stop gossiping!
If one so desires, one can watch the entire circus show below.
Francis keeps repeating the same modernist blather, droning on and on about the same old subjects he gave sermon after sermon about when he lived in Argentina. Gossip, NGOs, neo-pelagians, interfaithness, unemployment, loneliness of the elderly, rigidness, change is good, ad nauseam... Didn't we hear the same junk in the '70's? Is Francis paying syndication rights fees for these tired ol' reruns? Below are two of his latest sermons and an Angelus address where he drones on and on.
