In his homily the Pope urged the new Archbishops to show mercy and care for their people. He posed two questions for modern Christians. First, he said, we must ask “What can I do for the Church?” He warned against complaining about the Church and invited lay people to participate in the Church’s work with passion and humility. This, he said, “is what a synodal Church means: everyone has a part to play, no individual in the place of others or above others.”

Then, “What can we do together, as Church, to make the world in which we live more humane, just, and solidary, more open to God and to fraternity among men?”

This does not mean – the Pope said - retreating into “ecclesial circles,” trapped in fruitless debates, or living nostalgically, but instead, “helping one another to be leaven in the dough of the world.”

“In a word, we are called to be a Church that promotes the culture of care and compassion towards the vulnerable.”

The Church, he said, is called to “fight all forms of corruption and decay… so that in the life of every people the joy of the Gospel may shine forth.” This, he said, is our “good fight.”