Pope Francis: Whoever Gossips Is a Terrorist

In his meeting with a group of religious priests, sisters, and brothers, the Pope said that Christians are called to love their neighbors and in religious life the “first neighbor” is one’s brothers and sisters in the community.

“Whoever gossips is a terrorist,” Francis said. “He is a terrorist in his own community. It’s as if his words were a bomb that he tosses against this one or that one, and then walks away. This destroys! Whoever does this destroys, like a bomb, and then walks away.”

Francis recalled how, in the Bible, Saint James wrote that learning to control one’s tongue “is the most difficult virtue, the human and spiritual virtue that is hardest to acquire,” and so the person who does not sin with his words has reached perfection.

“If you are thinking of saying something against a brother or sister, of throwing a bomb of gossip, bite your tongue! Hard! There is no place for terrorism in the community!” he said.

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