‘Christians, stop gossiping’ — Pontiff warns

Pope Francis is back with another important advice for the Christian community.

Speaking to the clergy in Bangladesh, a South Asian country, the Catholic leader encouraged people to live in harmony by avoiding gossip, division and bitterness.

In his words, “There are many enemies of harmony. One of the deadliest, and most common, enemies is gossip.

“You might want to criticize the Holy Father for being repetitive, but this is important to me.”

According to the Pope, gossiping about others creates distrust which is “a kind of terrorism.”

Faced with the temptation to gossip, the Pope said, “bite your tongue. You might harm your tongue, but you won’t harm your brother or sister.”

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More Advice

This advice was followed by some more on Sunday, December 3, 2017, when he kicked off the Catholic Church’s Advent season.

To him, Advent provides the opportunity for people “to welcome the Lord who comes to meet us, to verify our desire for God, to look ahead and prepare ourselves for the return of Christ.”

Moving on, he added that Christ also comes to each of us “every time we are disposed to receive him and “he will come again at the end of time to judge the living and the dead.”

Pope Francis also referred to Sunday’s Gospel reading from Mark, where Jesus tells his disciples to “Be watchful! Be alert!,” because “you do not know when the time will come.”

Using this reading, he advised people to remember that Christ is coming back and live accordingly.

In his words, “…We must always be watchful and attentive to the Lord with the hope of meeting him.”