(Via Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has decided to set up a “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation” which will be celebrated on September 1st annually.
He made the announcement in a letter to the heads of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.
While the words’ “global warming” and “climate change” aren’t specifically mentioned in the text, the purpose seems clear in the context of his recent encyclical when they say “the future of creation”. Something that Dr. James Hansen has touched on in a 2009 presentation “Climate Threat to Creation: Implications for Intergenerational Equity and Justice“. and also in 2007 with “An Opportunity to Lead the Nation in Stewardship of the Earth and Creation“. The language here seems very similar and the mention of the Encylical Letter. Laudato Si, 7-9 removes any doubt.
My view: God helps those who help themselves. If the planet is going to hell in a handbasket as they claim, praying about it won’t do much good.
Below in English is Pope Francis’ letter announcing the “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation”
To my Venerable Brothers
Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah TURKSON, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
Cardinal Kurt KOCH, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity
Sharing with my beloved brother the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew his concerns for the future of creation (cfr Encylical Letter. Laudato Si, 7-9) and taking up the suggestion by his representative, the Metropolitan Ioannis of Pergamum who took part in the presentation of the Encyclical Laudato Si on the care of our common home, I wish to inform you that I have decided to set up also in the Catholic Church, the “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation” which, beginning this year, will be celebrated on the 1st of September, as the Orthodox Church has done for some time now.
As Christians we wish to offer our contribution towards overcoming the ecological crisis which humanity is living through. Therefore, first of all we must draw from our rich spiritual heritage the reasons which feed our passion for the care of creation, always remembering that for believers in Jesus Christ, the Word of God who became man for us, “the life of the spirit is not dissociated from the body or from nature or from worldly realities, but lived in and with them, in communion with all that surrounds us.” (ibid., 216). The ecological crisis therefore calls us to a profound spiritual conversion: Christians are called to “an ecological conversion whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the world around them.” (ibid., 217). Thus, “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.”(ibid).
The annual World Day of prayer for the Care of Creation offers to individual believers and to the community a precious opportunity to renew our personal participation in this vocation as custodians of creation, raising to God our thanks for the marvellous works that He has entrusted to our care, invoking his help for the protection of creation and his mercy for the sins committed against the world in which we live. The celebration of the Day on the same date as the Orthodox Church will be a valuable opportunity to bear witness to our growing communion with our orthodox brothers. We live in a time where all Christians are faced with identical and important challenges and we must give common replies to these in order to appear more credible and effective. Therefore it is my hope that this Day can involve, in some way, other Churches and ecclesial Communities and be celebrated in union with the initiatives that the World Council of Churches is promoting on this issue.
Cardinal Turkson, as President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, I asking you to inform the Justice and Peace Commissions of the Bishops’ Conferences, as well as the national and international Organizations involved in environmental issues about the establishment of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, so that in union with the needs and the local situation , this celebration can be rightly marked with the participation of the entire People of God: priests, men and women religious and the lay faithful. For this reason, it will be the task of this Dicastery, in collaboration with the Episcopal Conferences to set up relevant initiatives to promote and illustrate this Day, so that this annual celebration becomes a powerful moment of prayer, reflection, conversion and the adoption of appropriate life styles.
Cardinal Koch, as President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, I’m asking you to make the necessary contacts with the Ecumenical Patriarchate and with the other ecumenical organisations so that this World Day can become the sign of a path along all believers in Christ walk together. It will also be your Dicastery’s task to take care of the coordination with similar initiatives set up by the World Council of Churches.
Whilst I look forward to the widest possible cooperation for the best start and development of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, I invoke the intercession of Mary, the Mother of God and of St. Francis of Assisi, whose Canticle of the Creatures inspires so many men and women of goodwill to live in praise of the Creator and with respect for creation. I support this pledge along with my Apostolic Blessing which I impart with all my heart to you, my dear Cardinals, and to all those who collaborate in your ministry.
From the Vatican, 6th August 2015
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…and THEY mocked US when we pointed out that Global Warming Alarmism had strong religious overtones.
Any religion that needs a Pope to keep the “believers” in line is a religion unsure of itself.
In my experience real Gods provide personal guidance. No need for intermediaries.
What sins against the world is the Pope referring to? Am I sinning against creation by doing what God designed my body to do, which is to exhale carbon dioxide? Am I required to “go and sin no more” to obtain his mercy for that sin?
Am I sinning when I use the fossil fuels that God designed the earth to produce, or did He put them here just to tempt us? Is it okay with the Pope if my prayers on Sept 1 include thanks to God for the gift of the earth and all its bounty, which includes abundant fossil fuels? Or should we pray for God to take that gift from us because the Pope doesn’t like it? Wouldn’t God be offended by such lack of gratitude? After all, God’s gift of fossil fuels is what makes life for billions of people on this planet possible. Without it, the blessings of education, science, and modern civilization itself would not be possible. Is the Pope not thankful for all these blessings? In any case, I sure hope His Holiness is not offended when I use his new Day of Prayer to thank God for such wonderful gifts.
I do not believe the Pope Francis is an “idiot” or “without moral authority” as has been noted above, those are emotional reactions. But why the Pope would launch himself into an international political argument with an encyclical that is so wrong on the facts, pessimistic, and overly emotional is a mystery to me. The Popes criticisms of Capitalism leave me wondering upon what his world view is based.
The United Nations Millennium Goals Report for 2014 provides statistics showing great progress in lifting the condition of the world’s poor, the real emphasis of the encyclical.
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2014%20MDG%20report/MDG%202014%20English%20web.pdf
For example:
-Since 1990 extreme poverty has been reduced by half.
-Between 2000 and 2012 an estimated 3.3 million deaths from malaria have been averted, and since 1995 22 million deaths from tuberculosis.
-Access to improved drinking water for 2.3 billion people since 1990.
-Achieved gender parity for education in most regions of the world.
-Though much remains to be done: Chronic under nutrition among children has declined, child mortality has been halved, ¼ of the world’s population has access to improved sanitation, 90% of children in developing countries are attending primary school.
It is indisputable that great gains have been made in the environment as well. Crop yields have dramatically improved, in part thanks to increased CO2, making significant gains against hunger possible. GMO crops, another “green sin”, fertilization and irrigation also have contributed greatly.
Does anyone believe these improvements could have occurred without industrialization? Could this industrialization have occurred under feudalism, socialism, or communism? History has shown that only Capitalism can provide an economic environment conducive to the growth and achievements’ described above. The primary driver of that economy is energy, fossil fuels, the great Satan of the CAGW cabal.
Bad actors do and will exist in any economic model, but they are better controlled under capitalism than any of the others, particularly when operating as part of a democratic society. Markets and the political process will control or eliminate the bad actors eventually. Not a perfect system, but all other economic /political systems allow endless abuse of their populations (Korea, Iran, Cuba, and former USSR).
Pope John Paul II devoted much of his life to the defeat of socialism having grown up under the oppression of its abuses. Why would Pope Francis now seem to favor it? Did Pope Francis, having lived in Peronist / Pinochet Argentina mistake that for capitalism?
I think Pope Francis sees CAGW as a means to redistribution of wealth. He seems to view economics as a zero sum game, in which a wealthy economy can only grow by poorer economies shrinking. Nothing could be further from the truth. As Jack Kennedy once said “a rising tide floats all boats”. The gains noted in the United Nations Millennium Report would not have happened without the technological advances of the developed economies and the fossil fuels that have driven them.
After all, I once read, “we are not living in a safe climate that is becoming dangerous due to the use of energy, we live in a dangerous and variable climate that we have made more livable by the use of energy”. Sorry, cannot recall who said this.
And when the world stop on the 1st of September and prays for Global Warming how many Christians and Yadizs will the Islamic State have slaughtered by the end that day
901 –
(Via Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has decided to set up a “WorldDay of Prayer for the Care of Creation” which will be celebrated on September 1st annually.
On trail of Giovanni ‘santa subito’ Paolo II.
____
ok with me; Paul, the rock on which the church is built, just a mere ‘Santa’. Subito, my God!
_____
Santa Francis guarded by martyrs Obama and Merkel.
With their annual 901 till the end of time.
____
Maybee.God.Thinks.Of.Retirement.
from care of creation.
Hans
I think it should be also a public holiday so we could all drive around in circles
http://blog.heartland.org/2015/08/naomi-klein-admits-in-her-climate-change-screed-that-global-warming-is-all-about-anti-capitalist-polemics-and-has-nothing-to-do-really-with-science/
It is really disappointing to see the Pope team up with such obvious frauds. If/when Congress finally does take an honest look at this fraud, and the world continues to cool, the Pope will make himself and the Catholics that follow him look like fools. Out of all the scientific issues that he could focus on he chose the greatest fraud in modern history. For the CAGW crowd to be correct God would have had to had created a doomsday bomb with CO2. There is no natural doomsday bomb. We have 600 million year of history to prove CO2 doesn’t cause CAGW.
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/PageMill_Images/image277.gif
The Pope is promoting a “science” that will greatly expand the control of the individual by the Government. The Bible is largely a story of people fighting against Government Tyranny, and pursuing freedom and a homeland. Jesus was tacked to a cross by the Tyrannical Pharisees and their collusion with the Roman Occupiers. Marx is famous for his “Opiate for the Masses” comment, and the first thing communist governments do is stamp out religion.
Being very religious, I will be praying … for MORE warming.
It’s interesting that the Pope pontificates about harmless global warming, but completely ignores this ongoing holocaust.