Pope urges reflection on attitudes to care for creation

By CathNews New Zealand

September 4th, 2026

Pope Leo XIV in June last year. (CNS Photo/Vatican Media)

Celebrating a new form of the Catholic Mass "for the care of creation", Pope Leo XIV has urged Catholics to contemplate nature as well as the ways they have shirked their responsibility to care for it. Source: National Catholic Reporter.

“From contemplating creation and encountering its creator, there arises an awareness of our particular place within God’s wondrous plan, and of the responsibility that we bear both personally and collectively for preserving the original harmony,” Pope Leo said while celebrating Mass in the papal gardens at Castel Gandolfo on September 1.

At the Mass, which marked the Church’s celebration of World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Pope Leo said that the Gospel invites believers to contemplate God’s creation, “a task that is certainly not difficult in the setting of these beautiful gardens”.

It was only the second time the Pope has celebrated a Mass “for the care of creation” using a new formulary he introduced into the Roman Missal last July. The Vatican’s liturgy office promulgated the Latin text of the new formulary last year; English and Spanish translations were approved in August this year.

Pope Leo invited the congregation at Castel Gandolfo to “recognise with humility the ways in which we have been unfaithful in safekeeping creation and caring for the dignity of each person”.

In his homily, the Pope asked the faithful in the coming weeks to “set aside a few moments to pause from the frenzy of our daily lives, in order to savour the profound harmony of which we ourselves are a part”.

“Let us place in ‘silent mode’ the many noises generated by human activity, so that we may hear the melodious voice of creation, through which God, the author of all things, speaks to us,” he said.

Contemplation of nature, Pope Leo added, “is a first step towards an authentic ecological conversion”.

“It is not yet too late, and the Season of Creation calls us to a profound conversion,” he said.

The Season of Creation is a month-long period devoted to prayer and action for the care of creation which runs from September 1, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, through to October 4, the feast of St Francis of Assisi.

On September 2, the International Theological Commission published a new document entitled Caring for Our Common Home – A Responsible and Fraternal Response to the Triune God, Vatican News reported. The document, published with the authorisation of Pope Leo, proposed speaking of a “sin against Creation and against the Creator”, a theological formulation that links environmental harm to rejection of God’s plan for creation.

FULL STORY

Pope asks Catholics to acknowledge ‘unfaithful’ attitudes for care of creation (By Justin McLellan/National Catholic Reporter)

Care for Creation is a theological question (Vatican News)