Swiss Guards stand at attention as Pope Francis leads his September 24 general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican (Photo by Paul Haring/CNS)
The biggest threat facing the Vatican isn't a bomb or bullet from the outside, but the insidious work of mischief-makers within, who fuel discord and resentment, Pope Francis told the Vatican's security force.
"There are bombs in here, very dangerous bombs in here," he told security personnel. "Please, keep your eyes open, because in the darkness of so many wicked lives, the enemy has sown weeds," he said in his homily.
To help celebrate the Vatican security service's patron saint, St. Michael the archangel, the pope celebrated Mass for security personnel September 27 in the chapel of the office governing Vatican City State.
The pope told his own "guardian angels" that their vocation is "to safeguard this state" so the church and the pope "can be free" to carry out their mission.
The pope said a good guardian, like the archangel, "has the courage to get rid of demons" and has the intelligence to be able to pick them out from the crowd. "He can't be, excuse my terminology, an idiot; he has to be quick on the uptake and alert."
"The worst bomb inside the Vatican is gossip," which "threatens the life of the church and the life of [the Vatican] every day," the pope said, because it "sows destruction" and "destroys the lives of others."
Full Story: Pope tells Vatican security force to be 'gossip police'
Source:National Catholic Reporter