VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Leo XIV underlined the important role Vatican employees play in his ministry by Meeting his former colleagues and co-workers and acknowledging how many of them spent many more years working at the Vatican than he did.

“Popes pass away, but the Curia remains,” he said on May 24.

Pope Leo explained that he was serious when the laughter and applause died down. In a diocese or at the Vatican, the chancery or Curia “is the institution that preserves and transmits the historic memory of a church, of the ministry of its bishops.”

“This is very important,” he told officials and employees of the Roman Curia, Vatican City State and the Vicariate of Rome. “Memory is an essential element in a living organism. It is not only turned toward the past, but it nourishes the present and guides the future. Without memory, the journey is lost, it loses its sense of direction.”

Pope Leo XIV was welcomed to the Vatican audience hall with an ovation that went so long that he jokingly warned the employees and their family members that if the applause lasted longer than the remarks he had prepared, he would have to add to his speech.

In the end, he spent as much time shaking hands, blessing babies and rosaries, and chatting with children who offered him drawings as he did reading his text.

The Italian news agency ANSA reportedon  May 23 that Pope Leo also approved the traditional employee bonus for the beginning of a new pontificate. The agency said each employee received 500 euros (about $570).

In the days since his election on May 8, the Pope has been meeting with the prefects and other heads of Vatican offices. The day after his election he temporarily reappointed all the top Vatican officials; the Vatican press office said that he “wishes to set aside some time for reflection, prayer and dialogue before any final appointment or confirmation is made.”

“As you know,” Pope Leo told the gathering on May 24, “I arrived only two years ago when our beloved Pope Francis appointed me prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. So, I left the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, and came to work here. What a change!”

“And now — what can I say? Only what Simon Peter said to Jesus on Lake Tiberias: ‘Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you,'” he said.

Pope Leo also strongly reaffirmed Pope Francis’ reorganization of the Roman Curia with an emphasis on the offices being missionary and supporting the missionary activity of every bishop, diocese, and Catholic in the world.

“As I think you know, the mission experience is part of my life, and not only as a baptized person, as for all of us Christians, but because as an Augustinian religious, I was a missionary in Peru,” he said, “and in the midst of the Peruvian people my pastoral vocation matured. I cannot thank the Lord enough for this gift.”

“Then, the call to serve the church here in the Roman Curia has been a new mission, which I have shared with you these past two years,” he said. “I am still continuing and will continue it, as long as God wills, in this service that has been entrusted to me.”

“Together, we must look for ways to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges and encourages dialogue, a church ever-open to welcome… with open arms, all those who are in need of our charity, our presence, our readiness to dialogue and our love,” he said, quoting his first speech to the public the evening of his election.

Vatican employees, he said, are called to support him and the entire church in the mission of “being at the service of communion and unity in charity and truth.”