The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network has echoed the Season of Creation in this month of September by proposing “the cry of the Earth” as Pope Francis’ prayer intention:
“We pray that each one of us will hear and take to heart the cry of the Earth and of victims of natural disasters and climactic change, and that all will undertake to personally care for the world in which we live”.
Pope Francis calls us to hope and emphasizes the importance of social responsibility in taking action to protect our Common Home. The Earth is crying out, but we only hear it when we are directly affected by environmental catastrophes, which are becoming more frequent every year, claiming thousands of victims in various parts of the world.
In previous years, the Pope had also expressed his intention on the same date in support to the Season of Creation and to encourage the Christian community to commit itself to this celebration.
In 2016 he called for respect for creation, in 2019 he prayed for the protection of the oceans, in 2020 for respect for the planet’s resources, and in 2021 he encouraged people to live more sustainable lifestyles. This year, he is once again speaking out in favor of the cry of the Earth and the victims of the climate crisis.
As a society, we have contributed to the climate crisis through our choices, and now we must change our behaviors by committing to caring for the Earth.
There is a difference between a natural catastrophe and an environmental catastrophe. The former refers to events produced by nature without human intervention (earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, among others), while the latter refers to events that are caused or aggravated by human activity (air, water, and soil pollution, deforestation, climate change, among others…).
In August 2015, a few months after the publication of the encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis declared September 1 as the annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.