Pope Francis urges the church to have courage at first mass VATICAN CITY, March 14 (UPI) -- Pope Francis, in his first mass as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, Thursday urged the church to have courage. "When we don't walk, we are stuck," Pope Francis said in a homily at the altar in the Sistine Chapel where the conclave of the College of Cardinals that chose him met. Citing passages from the Psalms, the Gospel of St. Matthew and the Letter of St. Peter, he said, "When we don't build on the rock, what happens? It's what happens to children when they build a sand castle and it all falls down. When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we confess without the cross, we are not disciples of Christ. We are mundane. I would like for all of us, after these days of grace, that we find courage to walk in the presence of God ... and to build the church with the blood of Christ. Only this way will the church move forward. Francis began his first full day as pope with a visit to the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome. The Rev. Ludovico Melo, a priest who prayed with him, said the pontiff spent about a half-hour at the basilica, a special place for Jesuits, which included singing a hymn and spoke to people in the church to go to confession, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. Pope Francis, the first South American pope elected Wednesday after five votes at the conclave, also prayed before a famous icon of the Virgin Mary called the Salus Populi Romani, ANSA said.