Meeting with Sisters: Francis Repeats His Mantras
He told the sisters, elderly women who are afraid to wear a habit, to "bear witness to the common vocation to holiness" - whatever that means.
They should transmit holiness to the new generations through "professionalism", but above all through "authentic happiness" [as opposed to "false happiness"?]
For Francis, this happiness is "born of dialogue", which "excludes no one" [except Catholics], which lives each encounter with a "sunny appreciation" of the other and of his "sacred uniqueness". This is certainly not the way Francis runs the Vatican.
He prattled on about "creative responses" to the "questions of our time".
Another of Francis' mantras was "gossip". For him, the "greatest enemy" is "gossip" - of which the Vatican is full, and to which Francis always listens attentively.
In his experience, "gossip kills, gossip poisons. Please, no gossip among you, nothing. Let's move on, no gossip".
He also recalled his "vinegar face" mantra: "Vinegar is ugly and vinegar-faced nuns, let's not talk about it!"
FaroDiRoma.it (5 January) published a cartoon of a sister saying: "It may be true that some of us are a bit sour, but among those who wear the [white] cassock, I don't see many shining faces".
Picture: Vatican Media, #newsFwvlssjdis