VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Francis said the desire to be a father is ingrained in all men, even priests, who are called to give spiritual life, care and protection to others.

“Something is wrong” if a man does not have the drive to be paternal, “something is missing in this man,” the pope said in his homily during a morning Mass June 26 in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives.

“All of us, to exist, to become satisfied and to be mature have to feel the joy of paternity, even those of us who are celibate,” he said.

“Paternity is giving life to others,” he said. For priests, “it will be pastoral paternity, spiritual paternity, but it is giving life, becoming fathers.”

Being a father is a grace the Lord gives, he said, highlighting the fact that people address priests as “father.”

“People want us to be like that – fathers – with the grace of pastoral paternity,” he said.

The pope gave a special greeting to 82-year-old Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi, the retired archbishop of Palermo, Sicily, who attended the morning Mass and the general audience afterward in St. Peter’s Square.

The pope congratulated him, both during the Mass and at the audience, on his 60th anniversary of his priestly ordination.