From this, he said he wanted to draw attention especially to two words: meeting and living.
The Church, he explained, is a place of meeting, a place to overcome the temptation to loneliness and isolation, a place "where to share joys and hardships, where to carry the burdens of the heart, the dissatisfactions of life and homesickness."
The second word is 'living.' Jesus is the living, he said. "He is risen and alive and so we meet him in the Church, in the Liturgy, in the Word. Every one of his communities, then, can only smell of life."
Francis also encouraged the youth to be present in the life of the parish, saying "young people need to participate in the Church."
He also spoke off-the-cuff about the importance of Ukrainian mothers and grandmothers for transmitting the faith. Praising their strength, he said, "Ukrainian women are heroic."
After his speech, the Pope prayed in front of the tomb of Bishop Stefan Czmil, who served as a missionary to Argentina, and was a childhood mentor to Pope Francis himself as a child.
"From him I learned the beauty of your liturgy," he said Sunday. "From his stories (I learned) the living testimony of how much faith has been tried and forged in the midst of the terrible atheistic persecutions of the last century."
Sunday the Pope also visited the tomb of Cardinal Josip Slipyi, who was responsible for raising the funds to build the basilica in Rome after spending 18 years in Soviet prison camps in Siberia and Mordovia.
Slipyi "wanted and built this luminous Basilica, so that it would shine as a prophetic sign of freedom in the years when access to many places of worship was prevented," Francis said.
"But with the sufferings endured and offered to the Lord he helped to build another temple, even bigger and more beautiful, the building of living stones that are you all."
He also made reference to Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, who was the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church until his retirement in 2011 due to poor health. He died May 31, 2017 at the age of 84, and is buried in the crypt of Patriarchal Cathedral in Kyiv.
(Story continues below)
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
At Catholic News Agency, our team is committed to reporting the truth with courage, integrity, and fidelity to our faith. We provide news about the Church and the world, as seen through the teachings of the Catholic Church. When you subscribe to the CNA UPDATE, we'll send you a daily email with links to the news you need and, occasionally, breaking news.
As part of this free service you may receive occasional offers from us at EWTN News and EWTN. We won't rent or sell your information, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Cardinal Husar "was not only 'father and head' of your Church, but guide and older brother of many," Pope Francis said.
All three of these "witnesses of the past," he continued, "have been open to the future of God and therefore give hope to the present. Several of you may have had the grace to know them."
"When you cross the threshold of this temple, remember," he said. "Remember the fathers and mothers in the faith, because they are the bases that govern us: those who have taught us the Gospel with life, they still orient us and accompany us on the journey."
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.