(AKI) - Pope Francis on Tuesday deplored the "sinful attitude" of hypocrisy, saying it is a pernicious danger to individuals and communities by breeding vanity and "ripping out" personalities and souls.
"How hypocrisy harms the Church!" Francis underlined in a sermon as he celebrated mass at the Vatican's Santa Marta hotel.
"May Christians have the (divine) grace not to slide into the vice of hypocrisy, to never be hypocritical, to know how to tell the truth and if that's not possible then to keep quiet," he said.
Hypocrisy is a "sinful attitude" that "kills" communities, Francis warned.
"The hypocrite is two-faced and the language of hypocrisy is the language of trickery that begins with adulation and then destroys people, ripping out their personality and their soul."
"Hypocrisy is a great danger, a very ugly danger," the pontiff concluded.
