Pope Francis thanks priests during Holy Thursday mass after hospital stay

April 6 (UPI) -- During his Holy Thursday service, Pope Francis thanked priests around the world for the "good that you do" but warned against bitterness and disunity.

The pontiff, who spent three days in the hospital last week after suffering viral bronchitis, presided over the Mass attended by more than 1,880 priests, bishops and cardinals who were renewing their promises made during ordination.

Pope Francis said his "thank you" for the priests' service comes from "my heart" in recognition of how important their daily work is to the church and communities they serve.

"Thank you for your witness and for your service," the pontiff said, according to Vatican News. "Thank you for all the hidden good you do, and for the forgiveness and consolation that you bestow in God's name. Thank you for your ministry, which often is carried out with great effort, misunderstandings and little recognition."

Pope Francis urged the clergy members to be "welcoming and forgiving" to those who seek their counsel or risk those same people eventually rejecting their wisdom.

"Do I think about the kindness of the priest: if people see, in us too, people who are dissatisfied and discontented, who criticize and point fingers, where else will they find harmony?" the pope said. "How many people fail to approach us, or keep at a distance, because in the Church they feel unwelcomed and unloved, regarded with suspicion and judged?

"In God's name, let us be welcoming and forgiving, always. And let us remember that being irritable and full of complaints does not produce good fruits, but spoils our preaching, since it is a counter-witness to God, who is communion in harmony."

Pope Francis, 86, performed Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square before an estimated 60,000 people, the day after he was released just a day after he was discharged from a hospital in Rome where he was treated for bronchitis.