VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
Joshua J. McElwee | Mar. 25, 2015
ROME Pope Francis has asked Catholics around the world — at every level of the church — to stay away from gossiping about the upcoming Synod on the Family and to instead pray fervently that it will result in a church more committed to witnessing God’s love for all.
“There is not need of gossip!” the pope insisted strongly while talking about the synod during his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square Wednesday. “Everyone — pope, cardinals, bishops, priests, religious, and lay faithful — we are all called to pray for the synod.”
Inviting those in the square and Catholics around the world to say such prayers “with holy insistence,” Francis asked that the prayers “may be animated by the compassion of the Good Shepherd for his flock, especially for persons and families who for various reasons are ‘troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.'”
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