Pope Leo: Creation Day ‘more important than ever’

Many Catholic communities prepared to mark the day with the ‘Mass for the Care of Creation’, a new formulary of Roman Missal first celebrated by Pope Leo in July.

The Day of Care for Creation “is more important and urgent than ever” in the tenth anniversary year of Laudato Si’, Pope Leo said.

Speaking at the Angelus on Sunday, the Pope invited Catholics to mark the World Day of Prayer for the care of Creation on 1 September with the theme “Seeds of Peace and Hope”, chosen by Pope Francis before his death.

The late Pope established the Catholic Church’s Day of Care for Creation – already celebrated in Orthodox and Protestant churches and in many Catholic dioceses – alongside the publication of his environmental encyclical in 2015, instituting the Season of Creation up to the Feast of St Francis of Assisi on 4 October.

“In the spirit of the Canticle of Brother Sun, composed by him 800 years ago, we praise God and renew our commitment not to ruin his gift but to take care of our common home,” Pope Leo said on Sunday.

Many Catholic communities prepared to celebrate the day with the “Mass for the Care of Creation”, a new formulary of Roman Missal first celebrated by Pope Leo in July. Bishop Lizardo Estrada, the secretary-general of the Latin American bishops’ council CELAM, was among those to welcome the “great novelty” of the Mass to mark the day liturgically.

The Brazilian bishops drew attention to their Ecological Manifesto, an extensive document published this summer in Portuguese, Spanish and English that draws largely on the teachings of Laudato Si’ and calls for a “deep and radical transformation of the relation of human beings to Planet Earth”.

It condemns the rejection by modern capitalism of indigenous peoples’ idea of “living well” in harmony with nature.  This focus on “extractivism” has given rise to a consumerist, “throw-away society”, the document says, arguing not for “green capitalism”, which they call a contradiction, but “integral ecology”.

The bishops insisted their message was one of hope, modelled on the activism of “the martyrs who died defending the forests, the rivers, biodiversity – Dorothy Stang, Berta Cáceres and Chico Mendes”. The ultimate basis of this hope, they said, is God’s promise of “new heavens and a new earth” (2 Peter 3:13).

How Laudato si’ made green ideas mainstream

Call to hear ‘cry of the earth’ on tenth anniversary of Laudato Si’

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