CNN: Vatican City (CNN) -- Pope Francis on Thursday emphasized church advancement in his first Mass with the cardinals who elected him as pontiff a day earlier.
With solemnity, he delivered a homily about moving the Catholic Church forward to the cardinal electors, who were dressed in light yellow robes. Altar servers burned incense in the Sistine Chapel, the setting for the Mass.
He didn't appear to use a script and kept the sermon short, calling on the cardinals to have courage.
"When we don't walk, we are stuck. When we don't build on the rock, what happens? It's what happens to children when they build a sand castle and it all then falls down," the new pontiff said.
"When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we confess without the cross, we are not disciples of Christ. We are mundane," he said. "We are all but disciples of our Lord.
"I would like for all of us, after these days of grace, that we find courage to walk in the presence of God ... and to build the church with the blood of Christ," he continued. "Only this way will the church move forward." »
