Pope reprimands Vatican staff for gossiping

In his annual Christmas message, Pope Francis told off Vatican employees for gossiping, the Associated Press reported Dec. 21.

"During his annual Christmas greeting, Pope Francis called on Vatican bureaucrats to stop gossiping and speaking ill of each other," the publication said.

According to the pontiff, gossip is an evil that destroys public life, poisons people's hearts and leads to nothing. The agency notes that this remark was made after the saturated "toxic atmosphere" that has recently reigned in the closed environment of the Vatican, where office gossip and criticism are mused. The pope also called for criticism to be said to his face and not behind his back.

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Earlier, on Nov. 27, Reuters reported that the pope said that starting in December, his teachings at the weekly general audience at the Vatican will be translated into Mandarin. Every Wednesday at the audience, the pontiff speaks in Italian, and his teachings are translated and read out in English, French, German, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic.