Pope Francis shares Christmas greetings
with Vatican employees
Pope francis meetingVatican employees on Dec.21.- AFP |
Pope Francis met with Vatican employees on Thursday to
exchange Christmas greetings, during which he made several off-the-cuff
remarks.
By Robin Gomes
Pope Francis on Thursday exchanged Christmas
greetings with Vatican employees thanking them for the work they
do. “Work is the first word that I tell you, not to tell you to work
more, but to tell you ‘Thank you!,” he told employees and their families
gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall.
Work
Speaking off-the-cuff in Italian during the tradtional
Christmas gathering, he said, “I don’t want irregular labour in the
Vatican.” A trial period of a year or two is OK, he said, but nothing
more.
The Pope said it is a “problem of conscience because we
cannot preach the social doctrine of the Church and then have
situations of irregular labour.” He then urged employees to help
him find a solution to the problem.
Families
The Holy Father, who turned 81 on Sunday, also urged his
employees to safeguard families. He said that he also suffers with families
and marriages in crisis, in which the victims are mostly children.
He particularly advised parents not to quarrel in front of their children
Gossip and forgiveness
Pope Francis also urged Vatican employees to avoid gossip
and slander.
If we have given a bad example, we must ask
forgiveness, he said, admitting that even the clergy don’t always give good
example.
“In life, there are mistakes that we clerics make, with our
sins, injustice or sometimes ill-treatment of persons…. We beg pardon for these
bad examples,” he said.
Christmas is a good time to be at peace with ourselves by
making a good confession because we are all sinners, he said.
Pope Francis closed the gathering by wishing all a “Merry
Christmas”.
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