Lol. Pope Francis tells gossip-loving priests and nuns to ‘bite their tongues’ rather than gossip

Gossip-loving priests and nuns have been urged by the Pope not to spread tales about one another as he told them to fight the temptation and ‘bite your tongue’ in an improvised speech.
Addressing members of the clergy marking the end of the Year of Consecrated Life, the pontiff told them not to ‘drop a gossip bomb’ and warned those breaking their vow of obedience to fall into line.
It came just 24 hours after it emerged Pope Francis is to appear in a feature film.


In what will be a cinematic first, the leader of the Catholic Church is set to grace the big screen after asking filmmakers to make a movie for children that communicates the message of Jesus.

But a Vatican spokesman downplayed suggestions the pontiff would be debuting his acting skills, saying: ‘The Pope is not an actor.’
Instead it is thought he will appear in an epilogue ‘telling children how and where to find Jesus.’
Meanwhile, in his speech to members of the clergy in Vatican City on Monday, Pope Francis said: ‘If you get an urge to say something against a brother or a sister, to drop a gossip bomb, bite your tongue! Hard!’
The Argentine warned against those abusing their religious vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, describing ‘anarchy’ as the ‘daughter of the devil’.
And he bemoaned a drop in the number of people signing up for a religious life, but warned against taking just anyone.


‘Why is the womb of consecrated live becoming so sterile?’ he asked.
‘Some congregations experiment with ‘artificial insemination’. What do they do? They welcome… ‘Yes come, come, come’. And then there are problems,’ he said.
‘No. We must be serious about who we take. We must clearly distinguish if it is a real vocation, and help it to grow.’
The Roman Catholic Church is still smarting from the clerical sex abuse scandal, which hurt the institution globally and saw many believers, particularly in the West, turn their back on the centuries-old institution.

The number of priests and nuns in industrialised countries is in sharp decline, though the Church still counts 693,000 nuns around the world and 55,000 priests.
The Pope’s film, Beyond the Sun, is described as a ‘family adventure story where children from different cultures emulate the apostles while searching for Jesus in the world around them.’
It is in development by Rome-based distribution and production company AMBI and filming is due to start later this year.
Profits from the movie will go to two charities that work with young people in need in Argentina, where Pope Francis was born.
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