Francis urged the Vatican inner circle to bless more and talk less badly of others. It wasn’t the first time he had used the occasion to scold them.

Pope Francis has told Vatican bureaucrats to stop speaking ill of one another. A wheezing and congested sounding Francis urged the prelates instead to speak well of one another and undertake a humble examination of their own consciences in the Christmas holiday season.

Pope Francis reflected on the devastating consequences of the Gaza war in an address at the Vatican on Saturday, expressing deep sorrow over the bombing of children in the Gaza Strip the previous day.