You Can Be A Saint

“I tell you the truth, I am convinced that if each one of us would purposely avoid gossip, at the end, we would become a saint! It’s a beautiful path!” These words and similar ones on gossip  are heard often from Pope Francis. An article in a secular newspaper mentions the direction the Church is making with 'poverty'-- the words of a columnist who mentions Fr, Jin Seul-ki, who wrote a book titled: You Can be a Saint By Not Backbiting.  A collection of the  sayings of the  pope. 

Fr. Jin Seul-ki  a Korean priest who is in Rome studying philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University translated a collection of the pope's saying under the title You Can Be A Saint.... He has also uploaded the pope's sermons to YouTube with Korean subtitles, and in the book he has the  video clips with QR code, for those who want to access the sermons. 

Pope Francis has continued to express the  need for the Church to identify with the poor of society. The article  mentions the talk he gave to the  priests and religious in Naples. He said diocesan priests do not take the vow of poverty but they should live the spirit of poverty. When profit comes into the parish life we dirty the message.

He also spoke of the danger of attachment to worldly goods. He said when priests or religious  are attached to money, they will  prefer people with money. In a humorous aside, the Pope told of a woman who was so attached to money that when she fainted someone suggested putting 100 pesos under her nose to awake her.

He also was very pointed about poverty when he talked to the bishops and priests in Korea.  When he was asked how  he viewed the Korean Church  he answered: "Your Church is a growing Church, a wonderful  evangelizing Church, a big Church. With the prophetic mission of the Church you don't want to exclude the poor. A Church rich and for the rich, a Church of well-being is not the Church you want to be." These words were sharp and bitter to hear.

In one of the talks the columnist mentions the pope said:  when we are too interested in money and its  benefits we lose our freedom to speak the truth.

He concludes his column by stating that the religious groups  are busy determining how they are to become transparent in the use of monies. People want to see clergy live a poorer life style, and reminds us that here we have the original thinking of all religions.