Ravaging the earth and creating environmental injustices are not what God had in mind when he entrusted creation to humanity, Pope Leo XIV said in his message for the 2025 World Day of Prayer for Creation. Source: CNS/OSV News
In fact, following Pope Francis’s teachings on integral ecology must be accepted as “the right path to follow,” the Pope said.
“Nature itself is reduced at times to a bargaining chip, a commodity to be bartered for economic or political gain. As a result, God’s creation turns into a battleground for the control of vital resources,” Pope Leo wrote.
“Agricultural areas and forests peppered with landmines, ‘scorched earth’ policies, conflicts over water sources, and the unequal distribution of raw materials, which penalises the poorer nations and undermines social stability itself,” are among the many wounds inflicted against creation and “are the effect of sin.”
“This is surely not what God had in mind when he entrusted the earth to the men and women whom he created in his image,” he wrote in his message, which was released by the Vatican on July 2.
The World Day of Prayer for Creation, which will be celebrated on September 1, marks the start of the ecumenical Season of Creation. The season concludes on October 4, the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, patron saint of ecology.
The theme for 2025, “Seeds of Peace and Hope,” had been chosen by Pope Francis to be in harmony with the Holy Year dedicated to “Pilgrims of Hope”. The 2025 message also coincides with the 10th anniversary of the late pope’s 2015 encyclical, “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,” from which Pope Leo’s message cited extensively.
“In Christ, we too are seeds, and indeed, ‘seeds of peace and hope,’” Pope Leo wrote.
Just as the Holy Spirit “can make an arid and parched desert into a garden, a place of rest and serenity, prayer, determination and concrete actions are necessary if this ‘caress of God’ is to become visible to our world.”
FULL STORY
Catholics must respond to environmental injustice with prayer, concrete action, pope says (CNS/OSV News)
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Pope: God’s creation is not a battleground for vital resources (Vatican News)
