Christian business owners have a responsibility to protect and uphold their employees' welfare, said Pope Francis, explaining that it is their "entrepreneurial vocation" to respect the needs of their staff while employing a "lay missionary" spirit.

Pope Francis likened business executives to missionaries in the world during his speech before 7,000 members of the Italian Christian Union of Business Executives gathered in Vatican City's Paul VI Hall last Oct. 31, Patheos reported.

"You are called to live the fidelity to the demands of the Gospel and the social doctrine of the Church in the family, in work, and in society," he said. "This call to be missionaries in the social dimension of the Gospel in the difficult and complex world of work, economy, and business brings with it an opening and an evangelical closeness to different situations of poverty and fragility."

He urged business owners to be more understanding about their employees' work and family lives, saying that they should help strike a healthy balance between the two.

The pope particularly encouraged business owners to be more supportive of women in the work force, especially since they face more challenges all the while "fully recognizing their vocation to maternity and to the presence in the family."

"How many times has a women gone to her boss and said I am pregnant and at the end of the month she is let go?" he asked.

On the Year of Mercy, which will be observe from Dec. 8 this year (the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception) up to Nov. 20, 2016 (the Solemnity of Christ the King), Pope Francis said business leaders are given the opportunity to enact life-changing programmes and do charitable works.

"You are called to cooperate in order to grow an entrepreneurial spirit of subsidiarity, to deal with the ethical challenges of the market and, above all the challenge of creating good employment opportunities," he said.

Moreover, he urged them to practice ethics for their businesses to function properly. When they do so, he assured them that they "will bear the fruit to the extent to which the Gospel will be alive and present in your hearts, in your mind, and in your actions."