To celebrate three occasions — the worldwide Jubilee 2025; the 10th anniversary of the 2015 release of Pope Francis’ landmark environmental encyclical “Laudato Si'”; and the annual ecumenical Season of Creation Sept. 1-Oct. 4 — Catholics across America have committed themselves to spiritual expeditions not on the well-worn pilgrimage routes of Europe but in their own communities.
Environment
Beneath the sprawling branches of surrounding trees, Gretchen Day can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. She has always found God in his creation, the Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church parishioner said — in the plants, the animals, all those things the Creator declared “good.” So, when she has opportunities to care for the Earth, she does; and that commitment led her to the Green Team.
Eight centuries ago, St. Francis of Assisi composed a poem that remains familiar today, inspiring hymns, art, and the titles of two of the late Pope Francis’ teaching documents on integral ecology.
Bishop Paul Tighe, a top official at the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, is urging caution on artificial intelligence — warning that its hidden environmental costs, impact on jobs, and broader social risks can’t be overlooked.
“We must pray for the conversion of many people, inside and outside of the Church, who still do not recognize the urgency of caring for our common home,” Pope Leo XIV said while celebrating a new formulary of the Mass “for the care of creation.”
Catholic priests will now be able to celebrate Mass “for the care of creation” after the Vatican announced that a new formulary of prayers and biblical readings for the Mass will be added to the Roman Missal — the liturgical book that contains the texts for celebrating Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church.
St. Peter’s Basilica and some of its surrounding buildings are working to reduce their environmental impact by becoming more energy efficient and promoting sustainability.
In 2015, Pope Francis shared an urgent message with the world. Writing in “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,” he said the Earth “cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her.”