God Entrusted The World To Us

In his first Encyclical [Saint John Paul II] warned that human beings frequently seem “to see no other meaning in their natural environment than what serves for immediate use and consumption.” Subsequently, he would call for a global ecological conversion. At the same time, he noted that little effort had been made to “safeguard the moral conditions for an authentic human ecology.” The destruction of the human environment is extremely serious, not only because God has entrusted the world to us men and women, but because human life is itself a gift which must be defended from various forms of debasement. Every effort to protect and improve our world entails profound changes in “lifestyles, models of production and consumption, and the established structures of power which today govern societies.” Authentic human development has a moral character. It presumes full respect for the human person, but it must also be concerned for the world around us and “take into account the nature of each being and of its mutual connection in an ordered system.” Accordingly, our human ability to transform reality must proceed in line with God’s original gift of all that is. 

-Pope Francis, Laudato Si’

Papal Intentions For April

Pope Francis during his visit to the Philippines earlier this year (CNS photo / Paul Haring)

This month, Pope Francis asks us to pray for our creation, that we may learn to respect it and “care for it as a gift of God.” He also asks us to pray for persecuted Christians, that they “may feel the consoling presence of the Risen Lord and the solidarity of all the Church.”

Creation is often disregarded in our “culture of waste,” and Christians are being increasingly persecuted throughout the world. Please join us in praying with the Holy Father, that these evils might stop and that those who love Jesus might feel the presence of His mystical body, even in the midst of great suffering.