Pope Francis Welcomes New Cardinals, Tells Them to Forget About 'Pride' and 'Jealousy'

Pope Francis recently chose 20 new cardinals into the select clique of church officials who will eventually elect the next pope. To welcome them, Pope Francis instructed the group to exercise pure charity and put aside other emotions, namely "pride" and "jealousy," according to the Associated Press.

Francis made his remarks at a ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica where the new the "princes of the church" all received red hats and were elevated into the College of Cardinals .

The event saw more than one pope, as retired Pope Benedict XVI was at the ceremony as well. He sat off to the side in the front row of the basilica. Pope Francis hugged his predecessor at the beginning and at the end of the service.

Francis kept the event grounded by reminding the newest members of the group that being a cardinal was not a "prize" or special "entitlement." Instead, he told them that the position was about working for the church and being humble and kind throughout it all.

The Pontiff warned the gathered that despite being "cloaked in noble appearances," it would not be enough to ward off temptation. They, too, might act for their own gains or get upset and envious, but they have to fight against it.

"Even here, charity, and charity alone, frees us," the pope said, according to the Associated Press. "Above all it frees us from the mortal danger of pent-up anger, of that smoldering anger which makes us brood over wrongs we have received. No. This is unacceptable in a man of the church."

The group of gathered churchmen was a testament to the pope's insistence in including officials from underrepresented areas, as many of the new cardinals came from smaller countries that have not historically been represented.

Some of the eclectic set of incoming cardinals include Soane Patita Paini Mafi of Tonga, which is a small island located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that has been much discussed in debates surrounding global warming; Francesco Montenegro of Agrigento, Sicily, who over the years has consistently dealt with the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants; and Jose Luis Lacunza Maestrojuan of David, Panama, who strives to protect indigenous peoples from mining interests.

The pope's call for abandoning anger and espousing charity was less of a critique than a dose of tough love.

In the past, while describing ailments that are affecting the church, the pope has used oddly poetic phrasing like "spiritual Alzheimer's" and the "terrorism of gossip" to show that churchmen at the top can even be affected.