In line with his pastoral commitment to the poor, Pope Francis on Sunday urged 20 new cardinals to turn their attention to the "marginalised" people of society.
Pope Francis spoke to the new cardinals during the celebration of Mass on Sunday to wrap up the consistory that created the 20 new cardinals on February 14 - part of the Church's current efforts to reform the Roman Curia.
"We will not find the Lord unless we truly accept the marginalised!" the Pope told the cardinals celebrating the Holy Mass with him.
In his homily, the Catholic News Agency reported, Pope Francis stated that true service is when Christians are not afraid to reach out to those that are considered untouchable including those who are living with disease or in extreme poverty. He told the cardinals that the true path of the Church is not to "condemn anyone for eternity, (but) to leave her four walls behind and to go out in search of those who are distant, those on the 'outskirts' of life."
Pope Francis used the example of Jesus Christ's healing of a leper in the Gospel of Mark to illustrate his point. Although lepers were ostracised in Jesus's time, He reached out to the man because of a sense of compassion and He identified with the man's shame and suffering, instead of turning his eye away from the lepers.
Similarly, the Pontiff urged, it is important for church leaders and all Christians to embrace the outcasts of society. People must not turn society into a "a closed caste with nothing authentically ecclesial," he said.
"Total openness to serving others is our hallmark, it alone is our title of honour...Truly the Gospel of the marginalised is where our credibility is found and revealed!" the Pope said.
He then called on to the his flock to "not only... welcome and reinstate with evangelical courage all those who knock at our door, but to go out and to seek, fearlessly and without prejudice, those who are distant."
