Pope seeks ‘ecological conversion’ during Season of Creation

Pope seeks ‘ecological conversion’ during Season of Creation

Pope Francis has urged Christians across the world to use the upcoming celebration of the Season of Creation as an opportunity to “cultivate ecological conversion.”

The pope said the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) also represents an “opportunity to work together for an effective implementation of the Paris Agreement.”

The pontiff made the call in his message for the Season of Creation and COP27, released by the Vatican on July 21.

“The sweet song of creation invites us to practice an ‘ecological spirituality’ attentive to God’s presence in the natural world. It is a summons to base our spirituality on the loving awareness that we are not disconnected from the rest of creatures, but joined in a splendid universal communion,” the pope said, echoing his messages in his 2015 environmental encyclical, Laudato si’.  

He said the current climate crisis is a call for all, especially Christians, to “repent and modify our lifestyles and destructive systems.”

“The present state of decay of our common home merits the same attention as other global challenges such as grave health crises and wars. Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience,” he wrote.

The Season of Creation is an annual Christian event that runs from Sept. 1 to Oct. 4, when some 2.2 billion Christians unite, pray and act to care for God’s creation and the common home, the earth.

This year’s theme is “Listen to the voice of creation.”

Echoing the theme, the pope said there is “a kind of dissonance” when one listens to the “voice of creation.”

“On the one hand, we can hear a sweet song in praise of our beloved Creator; on the other, an anguished plea, lamenting our mistreatment of this our common home,” he said.

The pope announced that the Holy See will accede to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement.

He added that at the basis of any initiative or relationship “there is need for a covenant between human beings and the environment, which, for us believers, is a mirror reflecting “the creative love of God, from whom we come and towards whom we are journeying.”

The papal message was presented by Jesuit Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, during a press conference.

The pope asked “in the name of God” that large extractive corporations “stop destroying forests, wetlands and mountains, stop polluting rivers and seas, stop poisoning people and food.”

“During this Season of Creation,” he concluded, “let us pray that COP27 and COP15 can serve to unite the human family in effectively confronting the double crisis of climate change and the reduction of biodiversity.”

In her speech during the conference, Christina Leano from the Laudato Si’ Movement said they will demand at the next UN summits on biodiversity and climate “a necessary community reconversion to adopt a new multilateral agreement that will stop the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of species.”

The movement, she said, will call for “more ambitious national contributions to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero as soon as possible.”

The Season of Creation was established by Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I, in 1989, when he proclaimed Sept. 1 as the Orthodox Day of Prayer for Creation. Later, the World Council of Churches (WCC) extended the celebration to Oct. 4, the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of the environment.

In 2015, Pope Francis made the Season of Creation an official celebration for the Catholic Church.