Pope Francis received participants in the general chapter of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus.

“We can do many things: initiatives, programs, campaigns,” the Pope said, “many things; but if we are not in Him, and if His Spirit does not pass through us, everything we do is nothing in His eyes, that is, it is worth nothing for the Kingdom of God.”

The Pope’s meeting with the Comboni Missionaries came five days after his meeting with eight members of the Comboni Survivors Group who had suffered sexual abuse as minor seminarians. The Pontiff did not mention sexual abuse in his address to the Comboni Missionaries.