The Catholic Church’s new pope, Pope Francis, held his first mass with the cardinals who elected him at the Sistine Chapel on Thursday. He urged the cardinals to stick to their roots and avoid modern temptations.

In his very first homily, the former Cardinal Jose Mario Bergoglio, the 76-year old pope of Argentina, said that the church risked becoming a pitiful non-governmental organization unless it goes through spiritual renewal and focuses on the message of Jesus Christ, according to a report by Sky News.

The Pope declared “If we do not confess to Christ what would we be?” He continued "We would end up a pitiful NGO. What would happen would be like when children make sand castles and then it all falls down."

Pope Francis and the cardinals in attendance wore light yellow robes over their cassocks, while the new pope spoke in Italian. He had no notes when he was speaking.

After being elected the first pontiff from the Americas, Pope Francis told a crowd of some 100,000 people, rain-soaked at St. Peter’s Square, immediately after his election that he intended to pray Friday to the Madonna, “that she may watch over all of Rome.”

Like many Latin American catholics, Pope Francis has a particular devotion to the Virgin Mary. In his second day as the church’s leader, he prayed before a Byzantine icon of Mary and the infant Jesus.

Pope Francis, son of middle-class Italian immigrants, is recognized by his peers and the Latin American church community as a humble man. Earlier reports on the new pope shares stories of him denying himself of the luxurious privileges provided to Buenos Aires cardinals. He used to ride the bus to work, cooked his own meals and regularly visited the slums that fill Argentina’s capitals.