At noon today (Rome time), in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, the Holy Father, Pope Francis met with staff members of the Holy See and of the Vatican City State, along with members of their families for the exchange of Christmas greetings.
Good morning!
First of all, I want to thank you. Thank you to every one of you for the work you do here. Every one of us has his own job, we all know this ... There are also working teams in the Vatican ... This work is what composes the train which is the Vatican, the Holy See, at times it seems very heavy, very grandiose, with many problems, many things ... And every one of you gives the best of yourselves in order to do this work. I am aware that without your work ... - one of you told me that you've been here for 43 years; what memories! - without the work that you are doing, things would not proceed as well as they do, and this means that the work of the Church would not go on as well, we could not do so much work for the preaching of the gospel, to help so many people, so many sick people, so many schools, so many things ... You are a part of the great chain that carries on the work of the Church.
The first word that I want to say to you is work. But not to make you work: work harder, hurry up! No, no, in order to say thank you. Thank you. But in the Vatican, speaking of work, there is a problem. One of you came in and met a young man and said: We need to help workers who are at risk. The other day, I had a meeting with Cardinal Marx, who is the President of the Council for the Economy, and with Monsignor Ferme, the secretary, and I said: I don't want anyone working under the table in the Vatican. I ask you to forgive me if this has happened in the past. The famous Article 11, which is a valid article worth trying, but trying for one or two years, not longer. Just as I said that we should not leave anyone without work, that is to say we should not dismiss them, unless there is no more work for them to do, or unless there is an agreement that suits the person, so I say: we should work here in order that there are no jobs or workers who are wasted or mistreated. For me, this is also a problem of conscience, because we cannot teach the social doctrine of the Church and then do something (like that) that is not good. It is understood that for a certain time, we need to put people on probation, yes, we can try things for a year, maybe for two, but stop there. Don't work under the table. This is my intent. You can help me, you can help your superiors, those who work for the Governatorate, the Cardinals, the Secretaries, help them to resolve the problems of the Holy See: cases of precarious working conditions that still exist.
Therefore, the first word is work, to thank, talk of temporary work and also, one last thing: work is your path of holiness, of happiness, of growth. Today perhaps the worst curse is not to have work. And so many people — you surely must know so many –, don’t have work. Because work gives us dignity, and the security of work gives us dignity. I don’t want to give names, but you will find it in the newspapers. Today I saw, in a newspaper, these two problems, of two important firms, here in Italy, which are at risk, and to save the life, one must rationalize – that’s the word – the work and fire 3-4 thousand people. This is awful, very awful, because dignity is lost. And this is a problem not only here, of the Vatican, in Italy or in Europe: it’s a global problem. It’s a problem that depends on many factors in the world. To keep one’s work and to have dignity, to be the breadwinner: I take it because I earn it. Not because I pass by Caritas to get it, no. I earn it. This is dignity. So is work. Thank you, Help superiors to put an end to irregular work situations, and keep your job because it’s your dignity. I would say, keep your job, but do it well. This is important!
The second word that comes to mind to say to you is: family. I would like to say to you sincerely: when I know that one of your families is in crisis, that there are children who are anguished because they see that the family has . . . a problem, I suffer. But allow yourselves to be helped. I wanted the Secretary General of the Governorate to be Bishop so that he would have this pastoral dimension. Please, save the families. I know it’s not easy, that there are personality problems, psychological problems, problems . . . so many problems in a marriage. However, try to ask for help in time, to safeguard the families. I know that among you there are some who are separated; I know it and I suffer, I suffer with you . . . life has gone that way. However, I would also like to help you in this; allow yourselves to be helped. If something has happened, at least don’t let the children suffer, because when parents quarrel, the children suffer, they suffer. And I’ll give you some advice: never quarrel in front of the children –never, because they don’t understand. Take care of the family. And for this you have here Monsignor Verges and also the chaplains. They will tell you where to go to get help. The family: this is the great jewel, because God has created us family. Marriage is the image of God, man and woman, fruitful: “multiply,” have children; go ahead. I was happy today when I saw many, many children here. It’s a family. Take care of the family, is the second word that comes to mind.
The third word that comes to mind – perhaps one of you would like to say to me: But put and end to it with this! is a recurrent word: gossip. Perhaps I’m mistaken . . . there is no gossiping in the Vatican . . . perhaps, I don’t know . . . One of you said to me, one of you workers, one day when I preached about gossip, and he had come to Mass with his wife, he said to me: Father, if one doesn’t gossip in the Vatican, one remains isolated. Heavy, heavy! You heard what I say about gossiping: the gossiper is a terrorist, because he does as the terrorists: he throws the bomb, goes away, the bomb explodes and hurts so many others, with the tongue, does that bomb. Please, don’t engage in terrorism! Don’t engage in the terrorism of gossip. This is the third word that comes to me.
However, someone might say to me: Father, give us advice, what can we do not to gossip? Bite your tongue! It will surely swell, but you will have done good not to gossip. Gossip, also, by some persons who should give example and don’t, they don’t give it.
And here is the fourth word I would like to say to you: forgiveness. Forgiveness and sorry, because we don’t always give good example; we – I speak of the clerical fauna – we (he smiles) don’t always give good example. There are mistakes in life that we clerics make, sins, injustices, or sometimes we treat people badly, we are somewhat neurotic, injustices . . . Forgiveness for all these bad examples. We must ask for forgiveness I also ask for forgiveness, because sometimes I fly off the handle (he laughs) I lose my patience . . .
Dear collaborators, brothers and sisters. Here are the words, the four words that came from my heart: work, family, gossip, forgiveness.
And the last word is the Christmas greeting: Happy Christmas! — a Happy Christmas in the heart, in the family, also in the conscience. Don’t be afraid, you too, to ask for forgiveness if your conscience reproaches you for something; look for a good confessor and do a thorough cleaning! They say the best confessor is a deaf priest (he laughs): he doesn’t make you feel ashamed! However, without their being deaf, there are so many merciful confessors, so many who listen to you and forgive you: Go ahead! Christmas is a good opportunity to make peace also within ourselves. We are all sinners, all. Yesterday I made my Christmas confession: the confessor came . . . and it did me good. We must all go to confession.
I wish you a Happy Christmas, of joy but that joy that comes from within. And I don’t want to forget the sick, who perhaps are in your family, who suffer, and I send them also a blessing. Thank you so much. We take care of work, so that it’s just; we take care of the family, we curb the tongue and, please, forgive us for the bad examples, and let’s do a thorough cleansing of the heart this Christmas, to be at peace and happy.
And before I go, I would like to give you a Blessing, to you, to your families, to all. Thank you so much for your help.
Let’s pray a Hail Mary to Our Lady: Hail Mary . . .
(Blessing)
And pray for me; don’t forget!
Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
offered to staff members
Good morning!
First of all, I want to thank you. Thank you to every one of you for the work you do here. Every one of us has his own job, we all know this ... There are also working teams in the Vatican ... This work is what composes the train which is the Vatican, the Holy See, at times it seems very heavy, very grandiose, with many problems, many things ... And every one of you gives the best of yourselves in order to do this work. I am aware that without your work ... - one of you told me that you've been here for 43 years; what memories! - without the work that you are doing, things would not proceed as well as they do, and this means that the work of the Church would not go on as well, we could not do so much work for the preaching of the gospel, to help so many people, so many sick people, so many schools, so many things ... You are a part of the great chain that carries on the work of the Church.
The first word that I want to say to you is work. But not to make you work: work harder, hurry up! No, no, in order to say thank you. Thank you. But in the Vatican, speaking of work, there is a problem. One of you came in and met a young man and said: We need to help workers who are at risk. The other day, I had a meeting with Cardinal Marx, who is the President of the Council for the Economy, and with Monsignor Ferme, the secretary, and I said: I don't want anyone working under the table in the Vatican. I ask you to forgive me if this has happened in the past. The famous Article 11, which is a valid article worth trying, but trying for one or two years, not longer. Just as I said that we should not leave anyone without work, that is to say we should not dismiss them, unless there is no more work for them to do, or unless there is an agreement that suits the person, so I say: we should work here in order that there are no jobs or workers who are wasted or mistreated. For me, this is also a problem of conscience, because we cannot teach the social doctrine of the Church and then do something (like that) that is not good. It is understood that for a certain time, we need to put people on probation, yes, we can try things for a year, maybe for two, but stop there. Don't work under the table. This is my intent. You can help me, you can help your superiors, those who work for the Governatorate, the Cardinals, the Secretaries, help them to resolve the problems of the Holy See: cases of precarious working conditions that still exist.
Therefore, the first word is work, to thank, talk of temporary work and also, one last thing: work is your path of holiness, of happiness, of growth. Today perhaps the worst curse is not to have work. And so many people — you surely must know so many –, don’t have work. Because work gives us dignity, and the security of work gives us dignity. I don’t want to give names, but you will find it in the newspapers. Today I saw, in a newspaper, these two problems, of two important firms, here in Italy, which are at risk, and to save the life, one must rationalize – that’s the word – the work and fire 3-4 thousand people. This is awful, very awful, because dignity is lost. And this is a problem not only here, of the Vatican, in Italy or in Europe: it’s a global problem. It’s a problem that depends on many factors in the world. To keep one’s work and to have dignity, to be the breadwinner: I take it because I earn it. Not because I pass by Caritas to get it, no. I earn it. This is dignity. So is work. Thank you, Help superiors to put an end to irregular work situations, and keep your job because it’s your dignity. I would say, keep your job, but do it well. This is important!
The second word that comes to mind to say to you is: family. I would like to say to you sincerely: when I know that one of your families is in crisis, that there are children who are anguished because they see that the family has . . . a problem, I suffer. But allow yourselves to be helped. I wanted the Secretary General of the Governorate to be Bishop so that he would have this pastoral dimension. Please, save the families. I know it’s not easy, that there are personality problems, psychological problems, problems . . . so many problems in a marriage. However, try to ask for help in time, to safeguard the families. I know that among you there are some who are separated; I know it and I suffer, I suffer with you . . . life has gone that way. However, I would also like to help you in this; allow yourselves to be helped. If something has happened, at least don’t let the children suffer, because when parents quarrel, the children suffer, they suffer. And I’ll give you some advice: never quarrel in front of the children –never, because they don’t understand. Take care of the family. And for this you have here Monsignor Verges and also the chaplains. They will tell you where to go to get help. The family: this is the great jewel, because God has created us family. Marriage is the image of God, man and woman, fruitful: “multiply,” have children; go ahead. I was happy today when I saw many, many children here. It’s a family. Take care of the family, is the second word that comes to mind.
The third word that comes to mind – perhaps one of you would like to say to me: But put and end to it with this! is a recurrent word: gossip. Perhaps I’m mistaken . . . there is no gossiping in the Vatican . . . perhaps, I don’t know . . . One of you said to me, one of you workers, one day when I preached about gossip, and he had come to Mass with his wife, he said to me: Father, if one doesn’t gossip in the Vatican, one remains isolated. Heavy, heavy! You heard what I say about gossiping: the gossiper is a terrorist, because he does as the terrorists: he throws the bomb, goes away, the bomb explodes and hurts so many others, with the tongue, does that bomb. Please, don’t engage in terrorism! Don’t engage in the terrorism of gossip. This is the third word that comes to me.
However, someone might say to me: Father, give us advice, what can we do not to gossip? Bite your tongue! It will surely swell, but you will have done good not to gossip. Gossip, also, by some persons who should give example and don’t, they don’t give it.
And here is the fourth word I would like to say to you: forgiveness. Forgiveness and sorry, because we don’t always give good example; we – I speak of the clerical fauna – we (he smiles) don’t always give good example. There are mistakes in life that we clerics make, sins, injustices, or sometimes we treat people badly, we are somewhat neurotic, injustices . . . Forgiveness for all these bad examples. We must ask for forgiveness I also ask for forgiveness, because sometimes I fly off the handle (he laughs) I lose my patience . . .
Dear collaborators, brothers and sisters. Here are the words, the four words that came from my heart: work, family, gossip, forgiveness.
And the last word is the Christmas greeting: Happy Christmas! — a Happy Christmas in the heart, in the family, also in the conscience. Don’t be afraid, you too, to ask for forgiveness if your conscience reproaches you for something; look for a good confessor and do a thorough cleaning! They say the best confessor is a deaf priest (he laughs): he doesn’t make you feel ashamed! However, without their being deaf, there are so many merciful confessors, so many who listen to you and forgive you: Go ahead! Christmas is a good opportunity to make peace also within ourselves. We are all sinners, all. Yesterday I made my Christmas confession: the confessor came . . . and it did me good. We must all go to confession.
I wish you a Happy Christmas, of joy but that joy that comes from within. And I don’t want to forget the sick, who perhaps are in your family, who suffer, and I send them also a blessing. Thank you so much. We take care of work, so that it’s just; we take care of the family, we curb the tongue and, please, forgive us for the bad examples, and let’s do a thorough cleansing of the heart this Christmas, to be at peace and happy.
And before I go, I would like to give you a Blessing, to you, to your families, to all. Thank you so much for your help.
Let’s pray a Hail Mary to Our Lady: Hail Mary . . .
(Blessing)
And pray for me; don’t forget!
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