Yesterday, 25 May, Pope Francis’ published his message for the 2023 World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on the theme, “Let Justice and Peace Flow”, inspired by the words of the prophet Amos: “Let justice flow on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.”
In his Message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation Pope Francis begins by noting that, “God wants justice to reign; it is as essential to our life as God’s children made in his likeness as water is essential for our physical survival.” In 2015, Pope Francis first instituted the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation to encourage prayer for our common home.
Recalling Pope Benedict XVI who once observed how external deserts are growing due to internal deserts that have become so vast, Pope Francis decried the greed and selfishness today that disrupts the planet’s water cycle. The threats to our planet and water sources are many, he notes: fossil fuels and the destruction of forests that contribute to climate change; the depletion and pollution of freshwater sources through extreme practices such as fracking or uncontrolled mega-mining projects and intense animal farming.
Highlighting the Synod on Synodality that will open its first session in October at the end of the Season of Creation, Pope Francis said, “the entire People of God is being invited to an immersive journey of synodal dialogue and conversion.”
He concluded, that “our synodal Church must be a source of life for our common home and all its inhabitants…sowing justice and peace in every place it reaches.”
“In this Season of Creation, as followers of Christ on our shared synodal journey, let us live, work and pray that our common home will teem with life once again. May the Holy Spirit once more hover over the waters and guide our efforts to ‘renew the face of the earth.’”
Source: Vatican News
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