Pope Francis told Vatican bureaucrats on Saturday to stop speaking ill of each other as he again used his annual Christmas cards warn against backstabbing and gossiping among your closest associates.

A hoarse and choked-sounding Francis, who just turned 88, urged the prelates to instead speak well of one another and undertake a humble examination of their own consciences in Christmas holiday season.

“The church community lives in joyful and fraternal harmony to the extent that its members live a life of humility, renouncing evil thoughts and speaking ill of others,” Francis said. “Gossip is an evil that destroys social life, sickens people’s hearts and leads to nothing. People say well: Gossip is zero.”

“Beware of this,” he added.

So far, Francis’ annual Christmas speech to priests, bishops and cardinals who work in the Vatican curia has become a lesson in humility – and humiliation – as Francis offers a public repudiation of some workplace sins at the headquarters of the Catholic Church.

In the harshest edition, in 2014, Francis listed “15 diseases of the Curia”, in which he accused prelates of using their Vatican careers to gain power and wealth. He accused them of living “hypocritical” double lives and of forgetting – due to “spiritual Alzheimer’s disease” – that they should be joyful people of God.

In 2022, Francis warned them that the devil was lurking among them, saying it was an “elegant demon” working in people who had a rigid, holier way of living the Catholic faith.

This year, Francis once again referred to a topic that he often warned against: gossiping and bad talking people behind their backs. It was a reference to the sometimes toxic atmosphere in closed environments like the Vatican or workplaces where office gossip and criticism circulate but are rarely aired in public.

Franjo has long welcomed honest and open discussions and even criticism of his own work. But he urged critics to say it to his face, not behind his back.

Francis opened his address on Saturday by recalling war destruction in Gazawhere he said that even his patriarch could not enter because of the Israeli bombing.

“Children were bombed yesterday. This is cruelty, this is not war,” he said.

The annual appointment kicks off Francis’ busy Christmas schedule, made even busier this year by the start of the Vatican’s Holy Year on Christmas Eve. The Jubilee is expected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to Rome during 2025, and Francis has a dizzying calendar of events to cater to them.

After addressing the Vatican prelates, Francis spoke less critically to lay Vatican officials who, together with their families, gathered in the city-state’s main audience hall. Francis thanked them for their service and invited them to take time to play with their children and visit their grandparents.

“If you have any particular problems, tell your bosses, we want to solve them,” he added at the end. “You do this through dialogue, not through silence. We will try to solve the difficulties together.”

It was an apparent reference to reports of growing unease within the Vatican workforce called out by the Association of Vatican Lay Employees, the closest thing to a labor union. In recent months, the association has expressed concern about the health of the Vatican’s pension system and fears of further cost-cutting, and has demanded that the Vatican leadership listen to workers’ concerns.

Earlier this year, 49 employees of the Vatican Museums — the Holy See’s main source of income — filed a class-action lawsuit in a Vatican court, complaining about labor woes, overtime and working conditions.

Unlike Italy, which has strong labor laws that protect workers’ rights, Vatican employees often have fewer legal remedies available when problems arise. However, Italian Catholics often seek jobs at the Vatican: in addition to the sense of service to the church, a job at the Vatican offers tax-free benefits and access to below-market housing.