Pope establishes ‘Care of Creation Day’

Pope Francis has decided to set up a “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation” to be celebrated annually on 1 September, writes James Roberts.

In a letter to the heads of the Justice and Peace and Christian Unity pontifical councils, he said that he was “sharing with my beloved brother the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew his concerns for the future of creation”.

In doing so, he added, he was “taking up the suggestion by his representative, the Metropolitan Ioannis of Pergamon [John Zizioulas], who took part in the presentation of the encyclical Laudato si’ on the care of our common home”. The letter, dated 6 August, to Cardinals Peter Turkson and Kurt Koch, emphasised the ecumenical aspect of the announcement.

“The celebration of the Day on the same date as the Orthodox Church will be a valuable opportunity to bear witness to our growing communion with our Orthodox brothers. We live in a time where all Christians are faced with identical and important challenges and we must give common replies to these in order to appear more credible and effective,” the Pope said.

“Therefore it is my hope that this Day can involve, in some way, other Churches and ecclesial Communities and be celebrated in union with the initiatives that the World Council of Churches is promoting on this issue.”

“I ask you Cardinal Turkson, as President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace,” he wrote, “in collaboration with the Episcopal Conferences to set up relevant initiatives to promote and illustrate this Day, so that this annual celebration becomes a powerful moment of prayer, reflection, conversion and the adoption of appropriate life-styles”.

Francis then asked Cardinal Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, to “make the necessary contacts with the Ecumenical Patriarchate and with the other ecumenical organisations so that this World Day can become the sign of a path along which all believers in Christ walk together”.

“I invoke the intercession of Mary, the Mother of God,” he concluded, “and of St Francis of Assisi, whose Canticle of the Creatures inspires so many ... to live in praise of the Creator and with respect for Creation.”