Online: Pope focuses on environment, justice in Season of Creation

As Portland’s hot summer days begin to cool, many Catholics are already at work on addressing climate change. Indeed, Pope Leo XIV recently opened the ecumenical Season of Creation, a time of prayer and commitment to caring for the earth and all its living creatures. 

Moreover, the pope has inaugurated a multi-disciplined training center at Castel Gandolfo, which will draw on spiritual studies, education, history, nature, art and sustainable innovation to create a living witness to the church’s emphasis on ecological conversion.

The Season of Creation, which began Sept. 1 and continues through Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, marks the 800th anniversary of the saint’s Canticle of Creation and the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si, “Care for our Common Home.”

National Catholic Reporter  wrote about the opening of the season and highlighted a video and a prayer in Leo’s own words: 

“Lord, you love everything you have created,

and nothing exists outside the mystery of your tenderness. 

Every creature no matter how small

is the fruit of your love and has a place in this world.

Even the simplest or shortest life is surrounded by your care.

Like St. Francis of Assisi, today we want to say:

‘Praised be you, my Lord.’”

Then on Friday, Sept. 9, Leo led a tour of the “living laboratory” at Castel Gandolfo, guiding visitors through the garden, past a biodynamic vineyard, stopping at the stables to bless animals and finished at the newly built “net-zero energy” greenhouse. During Mass there, he observed: 

“What we see today is a synthesis of extraordinary beauty, where spirituality, daily life and technology dwell together in harmony. It is a place of closeness and convivial proximity, and a seed that can bear fruits of justice and peace.” 

In an earlier announcement of the Season of Creation, Leo drew parallels between the words of the prophet Isaiah (32:15-18) and the text of Laudato Si:

“The prophet contrasts justice and law with the desolation of the desert. His message is extraordinarily timely, given the evidence in various parts of the world that our earth is being ravaged,” he wrote in a letter published by the Vatican.

“As yet, we seem incapable of recognizing that the destruction of nature does not affect everyone in the same way. When justice and peace are trampled under foot, those who are most hurt are the poor, the marginalized and the excluded. The suffering of individual communities is emblematic in this regard.” 

Several parishes in the Archdiocese of Portland have groups working on climate change. The National Catholic Reporter recently published a story aimed at Catholics who want to raise the issue but aren’t sure just how to do it.