Pope Francis has expressed fear of a tougher plague than what COVID-19 presents.
The pope during his Sunday prayers warned that gossip might be deadlier than COVID-19.
He noted that the devil is a gossiper who aims to divide the Catholic Church.
He said, “Gossip closes the heart of the community, closes the unity of the Church.”
“The greatest talker is the devil, who always goes about saying the bad things of others, because he is the liar who tries to disunite the Church, to alienate his brothers and not to make community.”
“Please, brothers and sisters, we make an effort not to gossip. Gossip is a plague worse than Covid.”
Pope Francis has been known to always take a stance against COVID-19 in his sermons.
For instance 2016, he warned priests and nuns not to fuel the “terrorism of gossip,” encouraging them to resist the temptation to spread voices and tales within their community.
“If you get an urge to say something against a brother or a sister, to drop a gossip bomb, bite your tongue! Hard!” he said.
He mentioned it again in one of his preachings in November 2018, telling pilgrims in St Peter’s Square that gossip kills “because the tongue kills, like a knife.”
