World day of prayer for care of creation

Pope Reminds September 1 Marks 4th World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

Pope Calls for Water to Be Protected & Made Available to All

Toward the conclusion of yesterday's General Audience on August 29, 2018, Pope Francis recalled that Saturday September 1, marks the World Day of Care for Creation.

The Pope was giving his final remarks to Italian-speaking pilgrims, after having he reflected in his catechesis on his Aug. 25-26 Apostolic Trip to Ireland, for the occasion of the 9th World Meeting of Families.

Francis remembered this will be the fourth World Day of Prayer for the care of creation, noting it is being celebrated "in union with our Orthodox brothers and sisters and with the adhesion of other Churches and Christian communities."

"In this year's message," he underscored, "I wish to draw attention to the issue of water, the primary good to be protected and made available to all."

Saying he is grateful for the various initiatives of the particular Churches, Institutes of consecrated life and ecclesial aggregations, the Pope concluded saying: "I invite you all to join in prayer on Saturday, for our common home, for the care of our common home."

The Season of Creation is observed from September 1 to October 4, 2018, around the world and is linked to the Eastern and the Western traditions of Christianity. September 1 was proclaimed as a day of prayer for the environment by the late Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I in 1989. In 2015, Pope Francis established for the Catholics the celebration of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of  Creation on the September 1.

"As the environmental crises deepen and its consequences for the most vulnerable of our brother and sisters in humanity progressively appear, Christians are called to witness, in word, in action and in prayer, their faith in God as Creator," said Rev. Kreiger. "The "Season of Creation is for the Christian family, beyond all denominations, an opportunity to celebrate together God as Creator, to express our common gratitude for the gift of all life, to bring to God our sorrow for the defacing overuse of our environment and natural resources, to become aware of our responsibility toward all humans and toward creation, and to commit ourselves to action. To deepen our relationship with God, we have to deepen our relationship to each other and to all creation."

"Environmental ecology demands an integral ecology, that is to say, a human ecology, too, respect for the dignity of every human being, of life and all that stems from that, life from its beginning at conception right up to natural death – yes all are part of this commitment to integral ecology," said Cardinal Bagnasco. "On this point, all Christians – and therefore the Assisi meeting is particularly expressive and significant – find themselves in the light of the same faith and the same responsibility. Together, naturally, with all people of goodwill throughout the world, because to speak and look with love and to care for the human person, peoples, nations within a universal context, appropriate ecology is certainly part of the universal responsibility of the whole of humanity.