Pope Francis warned administrators that their work could take a downward spiral into mediocrity, gossip and bureaucratic squabbling if they forget that theirs is a professional vocation of service to the people.

“When professionalism is lacking, there is a slow drift downwards toward mediocrity. Dossiers become full of trite and lifeless information, and incapable of opening up lofty perspectives,” he said. “Then too when the attitude is no longer one of service… the structure of the bureaucracy turns ponderous, like a customs house, constantly inspecting and questioning, hindering the working of the Holy Spirit and the growth of God’s people.”

Francis also repeated a warning he had issued on several occasions in his morning homilies at the Vatican hotel where he lived: an admonition against gossiping. The secretive, closed world of the Vatican is a den of gossip, as revealed in the leaks of papal documents by then Pope Benedict XVI’s butler.

Using terminology familiar to those present, Francis called for Vatican officials to exercise a “conscientious objection to gossip.”

“Let us all be conscientious objectors, and mind you I’m not simply moralizing. Gossip is harmful to people, our work and our surroundings,” he said.

Much gossip of late has been focused on the works of the two commissions of inquiry Francis named over the summer to advise him on reforming the troubled Vatican bank and nationalizing the Holy See’s overall finances and administrative structure.

At a morning Mass, Francis said that one way to make a step forward in developing the new life of baptism is by rejecting the temptation to gossip.

The Holy Father’s customary morning Mass was attended by staff of the Vatican medical services and the Vatican City government.

“The first Christian community is a timeless model for the Christian community of today, because they were of one heart and one soul, through the Holy Spirit who had brought them into a ‘new life,’” the Pontiff said.

In his homily, Pope Francis reflected on the Gospel passage that recounts the dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus, who did not immediately grasp how a man can be “born again.” Through the Holy Spirit, the Pope said we are born into the new life we have received in Baptism.

However, he added, this is a life to be developed; it does not come automatically.

My dear readers, I am inspired by the Holy Spirit to continue writing on episodes of my personal experience in relating my life to the ways that Pope Francis wants us, laymen, to live a life that God wants us to live.

I will forever remember that grand day of my grand wedding on 10 June 1995 at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Roxas City to my wife, Monette, solemnized by then, and now head of the Archdiocese of Manila, Jose Fuerte Cardinal Advincula (2021–present).

Then a priest, in tandem with another, at the highest financial aspect of the wedding, Father Advincula advised me: “Arturo, remember that when you receive your salary and income, you give it all to your wife, Monette.”

“Yes, Father,” I replied.

Read the next episode on 6 May. You will enjoy it!

Email: artbesana@gmail.com