Today, Pope Francis’s message for the upcoming World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation was presented. The Day, celebrated on September 1, marks the beginning of the annual Season of Creation, which extends until the feast of St. Francis on October 4. This ecumenical occasion, established by Pope Francis in 2015, will celebrate its tenth edition next year.

The message was presented in the Vatican Press Office by: Sister Alessandra Smerilli, Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and Board Member of the Center for Higher Education Laudato Si’; Father Daniel Rodríguez, Director of the Office of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation of the General Curia of the Franciscan Friars Minor; Father Alberto Ravagnani, Priest of the Diocese of Milan and collaborator of the Diocesan Youth Ministry; María Lía Zervino, President of the Servidora Association, Board Member of the Laudato Si’ Movement.

The title of the message, presented alongside a short video summarizing its main points, is Hope and Act with Creation, a title that – Sister Smerilli says – already guides towards the Holy Year, centered on the motto Pilgrims of Hope. “The theme of integral ecology can thus be explored in the horizon of redemption and reopening of history that characterizes every Jubilee.” Hope and act, therefore, because “today it is dramatically clearer that there is hope if there is a change in present conditions.”

For such change to be effective – concludes Sister Smerilli – it must generate from an “ecological conversion which, like every experience of conversion, is a spiritual event with visible, concrete repercussions.”

The Message