CNS PHOTO | PAUL HARING Bishops watch as Pope Francis arrives to lead his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Oct. 2.

Pope Francis said the signs of God's presence in the Church are peace and joy, and not necessarily a perfectly efficient, flawless operation.

"The disciples wanted efficiency, they wanted the Church to go forward without any problems and this can become a temptation for the Church – the Church of functionalism," he said Sept. 30 during the morning Mass in his residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

A Church that focuses only on functioning smoothly, being "well organized" and having "everything is in its place, but (is) without memory and without promise," he said, "will not work out."

"It will be the Church of the battle for power, it will be the Church of jealousies among the baptized and many other things that arise when there is no memory and no promise," the pope said, according to a report by Vatican Radio.

"The Church's vitality" doesn't come from documents and meetings "to make plans and do things well."

While those things are necessary, they are not "the sign of God's presence," he said.