Explore Business Standard
Social Life
Pope Francis told Vatican bureaucrats on Saturday to stop speaking ill of one another, as he once again used his annual Christmas greetings to admonish the backstabbing and gossiping among his closest collaborators. A wheezing and congested sounding Francis, who just turned 88, urged the prelates instead to speak well of one another and undertake a humble examination of their own consciences in the Christmas holiday season. A church community lives in joyful and fraternal harmony to the extent that its members walk in the life of humility, renouncing evil thinking and speaking ill of others, Francis said. Gossip is an evil that destroys social life, sickens people's hearts and leads to nothing. The people say it very well: Gossip is zero. Beware of this, he added. By now Francis' annual address to the priests, bishops and cardinals who work in the Vatican Curia has become a lesson in humility - and humiliation -- as Francis offers a public dressing down of some of the sins in the .
President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday asserted that Arunachal Pradesh plays an important role in the social and economic development of the country. Addressing a special session of the assembly in the northeastern state, she said that Arunachal Pradesh is shining under the sunlight of development. She called upon the legislators to put concerted efforts in preserving the unique culture and traditions of the state.