The World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, celebrated last Friday was the beginning of the Season of Creation and the season finishes on the Feast of St. Francis on October 4th, The Church’s role in promoting the protection of the environment and the care of Creation has been addressed by Pope Francis many times but his encyclical Laudate Si is considered to be one of the best documents published in relation to the topic. Here is paragraph 13 of Laudate Si:
The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change. The Creator does not abandon us; he never forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us. Humanity still has the ability to work together in building our common home. Here I want to recognise, encourage and thank all those striving in countless ways to guarantee the protection of the home which we share. Particular appreciation is owed to those who tirelessly seek to resolve the tragic effects of environmental degradation on the lives of the world’s poorest. Young people demand change. They wonder how anyone
can claim to be building a better future without thinking of the environmental crisis and the sufferings of the excluded.
The world is our common home — everything that happens on this planet makes a difference in some way or other to the reality that is lived by people in this, our world, our home. The world’s poorest quite often are suffering due to the effects on climate change that have been caused by people not living in their countries. Decisions made by people in one part of the world can do considerable damage to the lives of people in another part of the world. Decisions made in relation to the natural world for economic purposes can cause the extinction of whole ecosystems and to the malnutrition of millions of people. Many animals are drawing closer to extinction. Market demands too often lead the way.