Presentation of Pope Francis' Message of Day of Prayer
for Creation
(Vatican
Radio) The Message of Pope Francis for the World Day of Prayer for Creation was
presented on Thursday at a Press Conference in the Holy See Press Office.
Presentations
were given by the President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace,
Cardinal Peter Turkson; the Secretary for the Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity, Bishop Brian Farrell; and the author of the book The Guardian
of Mercy, Terence Ward.
The
full text of the prepared remarks are below
Press
Conference / Conferenza Stampa, 1.09.2016
Presentation
of the Message of Pope Francis, “Show Mercy to our Common Home” for the
celebration of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation
Cardinal
Peter K.A. Turkson
Last
year, following the launch of his encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis
announced that the Catholic Church would follow the good example our Orthodox
brothers and sisters and institute a “World Day of Prayer for the Care of
Creation.” This is in recognition of the leadership of the beloved Ecumenical
Patriarch Bartholomew, who has long understood that when human beings abuse the
gifts of creation, they commit sin. The idea of a common day of prayer for our
common home came at the suggestion of his representative, my brother
Metropolitan Ioannis of Pergamon, who—to my great joy—came to Rome to help
launch the encyclical last year. We also stand together with other Christian
communities and with other religions too—because care for our common home is
something that truly unites us all.
When
Pope Francis announced that the Catholic Church would also mark this day of
prayer for creation, he noted that it would “offer individual believers and
communities a fitting opportunity to reaffirm their personal vocation to be
stewards of creation, to thank God for the wonderful handiwork which he has
entrusted to our care, and to implore his help for the protection of creation
as well as his pardon for the sins committed against the world in which we
live.”
So
for a first papal message for the Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation to
come during this Jubilee Year of Mercy is very appropriate. For we are being
asked to show mercy to our common home—to acknowledge and repent for our sins
against creation, and to amend our ways through the merciful grace of God.
The
first step in this process is to humbly acknowledge the harm we are doing to
the earth through pollution, the scandalous destruction of ecosystems and loss
of biodiversity, and the spectre of climate change—which seems nearer and more
dangerous with each passing year. And to realize that when we hurt the earth,
we also hurt the poor, whom God loves without limit.
Pope
Francis is asking us to be honest with ourselves and acknowledge that this is
sin—sin against creation, against the poor, against those who have not yet been
born. This means that we must examine our consciences and repent. I realize
that this is not the way we traditionally think about sin. These are sins, Pope
Francis says, that “we have not hitherto acknowledged and confessed.”
But
we are now called upon to do so. This means we need to take a long and hard
look at our lifestyles, especially when they reflect a “disordered desire to
consume more than what is really necessary.”
But
it goes even deeper. A genuine examination of conscience would recognize not
only our individual failings but also our institutional failings. As Pope
Francis says, “we are participants in a system that ‘has imposed the mentality
of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction
of nature.’” This implicates all of us in one way or another.
If
we truly desire to repent, we can confess our sins against the Creator,
creation, and our brothers and sisters. And “the merciful grace of God received
in the sacrament will help us to do so.”
Once
we have done this, Pope Francis says, we are ready to amend our lives and
change course. This adjustment also has an individual and institutional
dimension. Individually, we are called to “ecological conversion” in our daily
lives. We should not think that our efforts—even our small gestures—don’t
matter. Virtue, including ecological virtue, can be infectious—one person’s
good example can encourage others to do better.
Yet
individual initiative, important though it is, is not sufficient to turn the ship
around. Ecological conversion entails not only individual conversion, but
community conversion too. We need a conversion of economics and politics—away
from an obsession with short-term and self-centred financial or electoral
gains, and toward a true appreciation of the common good.
This
is brought into stark relief when we consider the sustainable development
agenda. Pope Francis praises the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals
and the Paris Agreement on climate change last year. But for this agenda to
succeed, it will require a heroic amount of political will and a heroic effort
by business and economic interests. This too is part of what Pope Francis means
by a “firm purpose of amendment.”
Yet
are we seeing that adjustment? Are we amending our ways? On climate change, the
global community has drawn a red line under a rise in global temperatures of 2
degrees Celsius. This is will require a complete shift away from fossil fuels
toward renewables by about 2070. This is a momentous undertaking. But have we
as a society truly deliberated on what this means, and what it will take to get
there? We have not. And the Paris Agreement puts 2 degrees Celsius as the upper
limit, and asks us to try to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius instead.
This is exponentially more difficult, and it will require an even stronger
“firm purpose of amendment.” Are we up to the task?
This
is the responsibility of all of us. Pope Francis says it is up to citizens to
insist that these commitments are honoured, and to advocate for more ambitious
goals. As one example from Laudato Si’, he suggests that social
pressure—including from boycotting certain products—can force businesses to
consider their environmental footprint and patterns of production. The same
logic animates the fossil fuel divestment movement.
Let
us also not forget the global solidarity dimension. As part of paying down
their “ecological debt” to their poorer neighbours, richer countries need to
provide them with needed financial and technical support. This too is a
component of the “firm purpose of amendment.”
Following
this amendment of our lives and institutions, Pope Francis is calling us toward
a new work of mercy. For as he says, “nothing unites us to God more than an act
of mercy, for it is by mercy that the Lord forgives our sins and gives us the
grace to practice acts of mercy in his name.” This is really the final step of
ecological conversion, a true internalization of an ecological sensibility. So
we are being asked to complement both the spiritual and corporal works of mercy
with care for our common home.
To
sum up, then: this Message is the next logical step after Laudato Si’, for it
is showing us how to internalize its teaching in our lives and in our world. It
is asking us to live Laudato Si’! Are we ready to respond to the Holy Father’s
invitation – and challenge?
Press
Conference for the presentation of Pope Francis’ Message
for
the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation
1
September 2016
Bishop
Brian Farrell
All
Christians, East and West, pray that God will continue to sustain and bless the
work of his hands “until all the earth sings the praises of his Name”
(cf. Psalm 66). Christians of all traditions are familiar with prayers
for the harvest, for rain, for the end of shortage or for help during natural
disasters. For example, the Roman Book of Blessings provides blessings for
fields and flocks, our homes, food, and more. To bless is to recognize that
everything – the whole of creation and all its parts – are a gift of
God’s inexpressible love, a gift he entrusted to our human care and
labour as the way of providing for common human needs.
It
is a great sign of ecumenical progress that Christians in all churches are
joining together in prayer at the same time to praise God for his work, to seek
his protection of it and to re-commit themselves to safeguarding it.
In
the time of the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios (1989), the Ecumenical
Patriarchate decided to dedicate 1 September, the beginning of the liturgical
year in the Orthodox calendar, to prayer for the safeguarding of
creation. On that day the Orthodox liturgy reads the biblical account of the
creation of the world.
For
his part Ecumenical Patriarch Batholomew has given particular attention to the
theme of the care of creation, so much so that he has been called “the green
Patriarch”. Among the initiatives he has promoted are the scientific
Conferences on the island of Chalki and the inter-Christian Symposia on the
safeguarding of the precious resource of water, with the participation of
Catholic representatives.
Patriarch
Bartholomews’s engagement was underlined in Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato
Sì. For this reason Metropolitan Ioannis Zizioulas was invited to take
part in the press conference to present the encyclical in June of last year.
On
that occasion Metropolitan Zizioulas launched the idea of a joint day of prayer
for the care of creation.
The
Holy Father gladly took up the idea and last year established the World Day of
Prayer for the Care of Creation in the Catholic Church, to be celebrated each
year on 1 September, coinciding with the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Throughout the Christian world, the Holy Father’s decision was greatly
appreciated.
The
World Council of Churches had already dedicated the period between 1 September
and 4 October, the feast of Saint Francis, to prayer and reflection on
safeguarding creation. The Anglican Communion too celebrates such a day on 1
September. The day dedicated to prayer for the care of creation by the Moscow
Patriarchate is the first Sunday of September, because 1 September is already a
holiday for the opening of the school year.
The
fact is that there is broad ecumenical agreement on this important issue.
Significantly for this year, the Secretary General of the World Council of
Churches, Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, uses a video message to encourage the faithful
of the member churches to pray for this intention. Likewise, the Council of
European Bishops’ Conferences together with the Conference of European Churches
and the European Christian Environmental Network have published a common
message.
The
hope is that on the occasion of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of
Creation members of all confessions will come together for prayer and
collaboration in common actions regarding this issue, also at the diocesan and
parochial levels.
In
today’s Message, Show Mercy to Our Common Home, the Holy Father underlines the
connection between our responsibility towards creation and our prayer and
reflection during the Jubilee Year of Mercy. He calls us to conversion:
to name and deal with the selfishness that has caused a disproportionate
over-use of the world’s resources, to deepen repentance, and to cultivate a
“merciful heart.” These are the very sentiments that fill the Orthodox “Vespers
for the Preservation of Creation”, a very beautiful prayer of praise and
supplication to God for the earth and all its inhabitants.
In
sharing that prayer, conversion and “merciful heart”, Christians are
united at a very deep level in spite of the visible divisions between them.
This spiritual communion motivates them to do things together to answer the
challenge of safeguarding the environment by ‘changing course’. As
today’s Message says, our culture of prosperity is distorted and our desire to
consume more than what is really necessary is disordered. We must change our
attitudes and our actions. All Christians together are called to make this
change.
Intervention
of di Terence Ward, author of the book The Guardian of Mercy
On
a day of creation and being Irish, I could not avoid sporting some green.
I
was invited to briefly speak on this “World Day of Prayer for the Care of
Creation” because of my recent book The Guardian of Mercy , Il guardiano della
Misericordia. The story centers on a Caravaggio masterpiece in Naples called
The Seven Acts of Mercy and how it changed the life of its Guardian. This
story happens to also be in remarkable harmony with the Pope’s message.
All
sacred traditions speak to Compassion and Human Solidarity which remain the
cornerstone of every faith. Voices echo across great distances and time,
chanting the same refrain. From the Torah to the Koran, from the
Annalects to the words of Ashoka. And, in our New Testament.
Originally,
in Matthew 25, there were 6 acts of mercy: Jesus said: “I was hungry and
you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you
welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me, I
was in prison and you came to me.”
In
the medieval period, a 7th was added, Burying the Dead.
In
our modern times, we have all seen Pope Francis perform all these acts of
mercy. And now he has added an 8th work of mercy. And, HE SHARES IT WITH
THE ENTIRE WORLD -- Caring for our Common Home. Groundbreaking and Visionary.
Ecumenical and Ecological.
ONE
COULD ARGUE THAT THIS IS THE HIGHEST WORK OF MERCY because it includes all the
others. A modern work of mercy for our modern epoch.
Ecumenical above all. And deeply linked to Patriarch Bartholomew of
Constantinople who has long spoken about the ecological sin of harming
creation. In turn, Pope Francis has focused on the devastation of the
environment and the suffering of the poor”. He asks us to” hear the cry of the
earth and the cry of the poor.”
TODAY,
Pope Francis renews his dialogue with “EVERY PERSON LIVING ON THIS PLANET,” a
dialogue that he began in Laudato Si.
And
NOW it is perfectly clear why his Encyclical was released during this Year of
Mercy.
WE
ARE ALL TIED TOGETHER. NO MAN IS AN ISLAND. We ARE BOUND TO
CREATION AS STEWARDS of CREATION.
The
secular French philosopher Edgar Morin hailed LAUDATO SI as a “call for a new
civilization.” Bill McKibben, the noted ecologist, says “it may be the most
important document in recent times.”
The
Pope’s vision reaches far beyond any political labels. His critique is not
simply an environmental treatise. It is a breathtaking moral, social, economic,
and spiritual commentary on our modern epoch; fundamentally questioning our
style of life.
“Intergenerational
solidarity is not optional,” he reminds us, “the world we received also belongs
to those who will follow us.”
And
with this announcement today, Pope Francis cements his Year of Mercy by adding
to his powerful message in Laudato Si.
1.
THE FIRST STEP. THE HOLY FATHER TODAY CALLS TO US TO EXAMINE OUR
CONSCIENCE.
Be
aware that we are not disconnected from the rest of nature but joined in
universal communion. Acknowledge our contribution, big or small, in the
destruction of creation.
2.
THE SECOND STEP IS TO BEGIN TO CHANGE COURSE
Think
of concrete actions, however small. Avoid plastic, reduce water, separate your
garbage, use public transport, help others, and turn off lights.
Never
think that these are too small. Seek a way to enjoy life’s gifts while
controlling consumption. Shun short-term thinking in both business and
politics, quick financial gain or electoral greed.
Begin
to consider a lifestyle that cares for Nature. The Common Good.
And
ask what sort of world we want to leave behind.
DO
WE WANT TO TRY TO BE GOOD ANCESTORS
3.
EMBRACE THIS NEW WORK OF MERCY
Nothing
elevates us more than an act of mercy. The objective is sacred-- human
life and all it embraces.
Simple
daily gestures break the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness.
On
the larger scale, Citizens should absolutely insist that their govts. and
companies act responsibly to honor the Paris Climate Change Agreement…and
should advocate for more ambitious goals.
Governor
Jerry Brown of California, at the Conference of Mayors here last year said: “we
need to think of instances where radical change occurred. Being right
here in Rome where we can walk through the ruins of a great Roman Empire gives
us an example. It was defeated not by another empire, but by 12 Galileans
who had no money, who didn’t even speak Latin, but who began the process of
taking down the Empire and replacing it with Christianity.”
And
we need to remember it was Gandhi, who overthrew the British
Empire. A man with a little cloth wrapped around his body, who now
speaks more about where we are than Winston Churchill or any politician.”
So,
our Holy Father’s message is embrace this NEW WORK OF MERCY – large and small -
care for the common home.
My
final question is how would Caravaggio have rendered this 8th work of Mercy
into his masterpiece? I leave this for you to imagine….
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