He went on to ask the other senior church leaders to renew their commitment to the pivotal Second Vatican Council, which enacted sweeping church reforms in the 1960s. The modernizing reforms included allowing Mass to be celebrated in local languages rather than Latin for the first time.

Setting out that vision on Saturday, Leo said the church should be guided by a missionary focus, “growth in collegiality and synodality,” courageous dialogue with the contemporary world and “loving care for the least and the rejected.”

He also suggested that he will approach the weighty office with humility and fraternity.

“You, dear cardinals, are the closest collaborators of the pope. This has proved a great comfort to me in accepting a yoke clearly far beyond my own limited powers, as it would be for any of us,” Leo added.

“Your presence reminds me that the Lord, who has entrusted me with this mission, will not leave me alone in bearing its responsibility,” he said, also specifically thanking Dean of the College of Cardinals Giovanni Battista Re and the Camerlengo Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, who was responsible for shepherding the church through the papal transition.

“He is an excellent pope and he had much more than 100 votes,” Cardinal Désiré Tsarahazana of Madagascar told Italian news outlet RAI on Saturday. “This morning’s meeting went very well, we also spoke about the need to make the church more collegial.”

After the meeting with cardinals, Leo left the Vatican to visit an Augustinian sanctuary just outside Rome, the Madonna del Buon Consiglio (Mother of Good Counsel), in Genazzano, according to the Vatican press office. The pope, who is also the first pontiff from the Augustinian religious order, was greeted by the local bishop and several hundred people in the town square.

The visit to the Augustinian church holds huge significance for the new pontiff, who was formerly global leader of the religious order. The sanctuary is also linked to his namesake, Leo XIII, who had a strong devotion to Mary as “Our Lady of Good Counsel.”

“I wanted so much to come here in these first days of the new Ministry that the Church has given me, to carry forward this mission as the Successor of Peter,” the pope told those gathered outside the church after he prayed in front of the altar and the image of Mary.

Pope Leo will appear on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica for a second time on Sunday to greet crowds of people in the square below. The city of Rome is expecting 150,000 people to gather.

Leo’s installation Mass will take place the following week on Sunday, May 18.