Pope Pope Leo XIV will preside over a Mass on September 1 in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, on the occasion of the XI World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. The Eucharist will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Garden of the Madonnina at the Borgo Laudato si’, located within the Pontifical Gardens.
The celebration was announced by the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development and the Laudato si’ Center for Higher Education. It will take place on the same day that the so-called Season of Creation begins, an ecumenical initiative that runs until October 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
A Mass at the Borgo Laudato si’
The celebration will be held at the Borgo Laudato si’, the project developed in the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo based on Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato si’.
Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development, stated on the occasion of the announcement that “faith teaches us to recognize in our common home not primarily a resource to be exploited, but a gift to be received with gratitude and cared for with love.”
For his part, Cardinal Fabio Baggio, director general of the Laudato si’ Center for Higher Education, linked care for creation with the defense of the person.
“For the Church, safeguarding Creation and promoting human dignity are two sides of the same mission,” he affirmed.
Baggio added that “safeguarding our Common Home means loving our neighbor, especially those who suffer most from the consequences of environmental degradation, poverty, the climate crisis, and conflicts.”
“Faith reminds us that we cannot love God without caring for what He has created and for those He has entrusted to us,” he maintained.
A day dedicated this year to peace and creation
The XI World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation will be celebrated under the theme “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks” (Is 2:4), chosen by Pope Leo XIV to link the environmental issue with war, peace, and conversion of the heart.
The Pope’s message for the day was published by the Holy See on August 20. In it, Pope Leo XIV maintains that human crises and the alteration of creation are not independent phenomena and calls for a “personal and collective conversion” that begins with a return to God and inner renewal.
Read also: Pope Leo XIV calls for an “authentic ecological conversion” that begins by renewing the heart
In that reflection, already published by InfoVaticana, the Pontiff points out that building peace does not depend solely on external changes and asks that hearts be renewed to promote both peace and care for creation. “Sacred Scripture tells us to guard our hearts, because everything we do flows from them,” he affirms.
From September 1 to the feast of St. Francis
The celebration on September 1 will also mark the beginning of the Season of Creation, an ecumenical period dedicated to prayer and various initiatives related to the care of the so-called “common home.”
The journey will conclude on October 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
The World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation was instituted by Pope Francis in 2015, the year the encyclical Laudato si’ was published. Pope Leo XIV has maintained this line during his pontificate, and this year he will personally preside over the Eucharistic celebration on September 1 in Castel Gandolfo.