The Earth is ‘sick,’ in need of prayers and action, pope says
By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Earth is ailing, and it needs the prayers of Catholics as well as their personal commitment to caring for creation, Pope Francis said.
“Let us pray that each of us listen with our hearts to the cry of the Earth and of the victims of environmental disasters and climate change, making a personal commitment to care for the world we inhabit,” the pope said in a video message released Aug. 30 by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.
The network posts a short video of the pope offering his specific prayer intention each month, and members of the network pray for that intention each day. Pope Francis’ intention for September is: “For the cry of the Earth,” which coincides with the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation Sept. 1 and its inauguration of the monthlong “Season of Creation.”
“If we took the planet’s temperature, it would tell us that the Earth has a fever,” the pope said in the video. “And it is sick, just like anyone who’s sick. But are we listening to this pain? Do we hear the pain of the millions of victims of environmental catastrophes?”
The first victims and those who suffer most, he said, are “the poor, those who are forced to leave their homes because of floods, heat waves or drought.”
To fight poverty and protect nature at the same time, people must change their personal habits, the pope said; but because climate change, pollution and the loss of biodiversity are “caused by humans,” social, economic and political responses also are necessary.
I am so very glad to see the Catholic Church’s stance of their stewardship role of the earth, which God proclaimed in Genesis. We need to proclaim this and take ownership of it by making it one of our greatest missions; since, the Earth is His, and He gave that responsibility to us as one of His first commandments to us – “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it”. The Church has not focused on this in the past, but now is the time to do so, and it might even bring us more like-minded converts if we focus on it now.