Pope Francis pleads with Catholics not to gossip

Pope Francis pleaded with Catholics on Sunday not to gossip about each other's faults, but instead to follow Jesus' lead on fraternal correction in the Gospel of Matthew.

“When we see an error, a defect, a slip of a brother or a sister, usually the first thing we do is go and talk about it to others, to gossip. And gossip closes the heart of the community, upsets the unity of the Church ”, said Pope Francis in his address to the Angelus on 6 September.

“The big talker is the devil, who always goes around saying bad things about others, because he is the liar who tries to disunite the Church, alienating brothers and sisters and dismantling the community. Please, brothers and sisters, let us try not to gossip. Gossip is a worse plague than COVID, ”he told pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.

Pope Francis said that Catholics must live Jesus' "pedagogy of rehabilitation" - described in chapter 18 of the Gospel of Matthew - "if your brother sins against you".

He explained: “To correct a brother who has made a mistake, Jesus suggests a pedagogy for rehabilitation… articulated in three phases. In the first place he says: "point out the guilt when you are alone", that is, do not declare his sin publicly. It is about going to your brother with discretion, not to judge him but to help him realize what he has done “.

“How many times have we had this experience: someone comes and tells us: 'But, listen, you are wrong in this. You should change a bit in this. Maybe at first we get angry, but then we are grateful because it is a gesture of brotherhood, of communion, of help, of recovery, ”the pope said.

Recognizing that at times this private revelation of another's guilt may not be well received, Pope Francis stressed that the gospel says not to give up but to seek the support of another person.

“Jesus says, 'If he doesn't listen, take one or two with you, so that every word can be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses,'” the pope said.

“This is the healing attitude that Jesus wants from us,” he added.

The third step of the pedagogy of the rehabilitation of Jesus is to tell the community, that is, the Church, Francis said. “In some situations the whole community gets involved”.

“The pedagogy of Jesus is always a pedagogy of rehabilitation; He is always trying to recover, to save, ”the pope said.

Pope Francis explained that Jesus expanded the existing Mosaic law by explaining that community intervention may be insufficient. "It takes greater love to rehabilitate a brother," he said.

"Jesus says: 'And if he refuses to listen to the church too, let him be like a gentile and a tax collector to you.' This expression, apparently so contemptuous, actually invites us to put our brother in God's hands: only the Father will be able to show a love greater than that of all the brothers and sisters put together ... It is the love of Jesus, who had embraced the tax collectors and the pagans, scandalizing the conformists of the time “.

This is also a recognition that after our human attempts may fail, we can still entrust our erring brother to God "in silence and prayer," he added.

"Only by being alone before God can the brother face his own conscience and responsibility for his actions," he said. “If things do not go well, prayer and silence for the brother and sister who are wrong, but never gossip”.

After the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis greeted pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square, including newly arrived American seminarians living at the North American Pontifical College in Rome and women with multiple sclerosis who have completed a pilgrimage on foot from Siena to Rome along the Via Francigena.

"May the Virgin Mary help us to make fraternal correction a healthy practice, so that ever new fraternal relationships are instilled in our communities, based on mutual forgiveness and above all on the invincible power of God's mercy", said Pope Francis