Today (Monday September 1) is World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and the beginning of the Ecumenical Season of Creation, which will conclude on 4 October, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi.
Pope Leo XIV’s message for the day is “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Is 2:4).
The Holy Father’s message highlights the connection between armed conflict and environmental degradation, which is both a serious violation of our duty to care for creation and a long-term threat to the lives of hundreds of millions of people.
The Holy Father says: “The interaction between armed conflicts and environmental degradation often creates a vicious cycle, which destroys ecosystems, contaminates essential resources, such as air and water, and undermines food security. This fuels poverty, inequality, and new social tensions that can contribute to the emergence of further conflicts.”
“What is more, war creates wounds that damage the whole fabric of life and reveals a deeper failure to live in God’s image and likeness, to respect life and to care for the earth entrusted to us.
“The wounds of war and the degradation of the earth, then, are profoundly linked to the condition of the human heart and are therefore an ethical and cultural crisis, including the loss of a sense of limits, the desire for domination, the pursuit of immediate profit, and the inability to recognise the God-given dignity of each human person.”
Pope Leo extends this invitation to all of us: “Let us imagine a world in which the energies currently invested in war are directed toward integral human development, to overcoming poverty, protecting human dignity and reconciling divided peoples. Such a vision reflects faith in the coming of God’s Kingdom.”
