"AND THAT,” SAID FATHER O’ROURKE, “IS GOSSIP!”

I learned in my RCIA class recently that gossip is a mortal sin, as in #9: Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Our class had a rousing discussion on the subject and decided that gossip might also be covered in #8: Thou shall not steal. Steal, as in robbing someone of their good character. 

Remember Richard Jewell? He was wrongly identified as the 1996 Olympic Park bomber. For years his life was made hell. When he was finally cleared in 2005 he asked, "Where do I go to get my reputation back?"

One of my RCIA classmates said the sermon in the movie "Doubt," with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, was the best illustration of gossip. "And that," said Father O'Rourke, "is gossip!" 

And now for something completely different...

> I'll bet you can't guess what Ozzy Osbourne's secret fantasy is. I kid you not.

> A snoring dormouse. 

~~~