This year’s World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, September 1, 2024, continues the annual tradition established by our Holy Father Pope Francis after the release of his May 24, 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si’: Care of Our Common Home.” Each year for September 1, Pope Francis selects a theme and publishes a message which “focuses on care for the natural environment and all people, as well as broader questions of the relationship between God, humans, and the earth (Christopher Rice, “Best Summary of “Laudato Si’”,May 5, 2022).
Pope Francis has chosen as the theme for this year’s celebration “Hope and Act with Creation” … (which is) “drawn from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans (8:19-25), where the Apostle explains what it means for us to live according to the Spirit and focuses on the sure hope of salvation that is born of faith, namely, newness of life in Christ” (Pope Francis “Message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation,” June 27, 2024).
There he explains, “The earth is entrusted to our care, yet continues to belong to God according to the Judeo-Christian tradition. … To claim the right to possess and dominate nature, manipulating it at will, thus represents a form of idolatry, a Promethean version of humanity who, intoxicated by its technocratic power, arrogantly places the earth in a ‘dis-graced’ condition, deprived of God’s grace.”
The Holy Father continues, “Why is there so much evil in the world? Why so much injustice, so many fratricidal wars that kill children, destroy cities, pollute the environment and leave mother earth violated and devastated?”
Read the full message HERE. __________________________________________________________________________
The Chancery offices in Lawrenceville will be closed Friday, August 30 until Tuesday, September 2 in observance of Labor Day.