Environmentalism is a corporal and spiritual work of mercy, Pope proclaims

A year after publishing the first papal document dedicated to the environment, the pope urged Christians to make the defense of nature a core part of their faith, adding it to the seven “works of mercy” they are meant to perform.

In a message to mark the Catholic church’s World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation that he launched a year ago, Francis said the worst impact of global warming was being felt by those who were least responsible for it – refugees and the poor.

“Nothing unites us to God more than an act of mercy, for it is by mercy that the Lord forgives our sins and gives us the grace to practice acts of mercy in his name”, the cardinal said, quoting the Pope’s environmental encyclical.

During this Jubilee Year, let us learn to implore God’s mercy for those sins against creation that we have not hitherto acknowledged and confessed.

The consolidation of those departments into a single new entity is part of a broader reform of the Roman Curia desired by Pope Francis, and worked out in conversation with his nine-member council of cardinal advisers from around the world.

In his message, the pope said concern for the planet’s future unites religious leaders and organizations and draws attention to “the moral and spiritual crisis” that is at the heart of environmental problems.

“And to realise that when we hurt the Earth, we also hurt the poor”.

Pope: “God gave us a bountiful garden, but we have turned it into a polluted wasteland of debris, desolation and filth”.

“Human beings are deeply connected with all of creation”, he states.

“When we mistreat nature, we also mistreat human beings”, he wrote in his message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which falls on September 1.

The Year of Mercy, he added, offers Christians an opportunity to experience not only an interior conversion but also an “ecological conversion”, one that recognizes “our responsibility to ourselves, our neighbors, creation and the Creator”.

After doing a honest examination of conscience, “we can confess our sins against the Creator, against creation, and against our brothers and sisters”, he said, explaining that we confess sins against the environment because “we are penitent and desire to change”.

Ecological conversion, the pope said, requires a serious examination of conscience, recognizing one’s sins “against the Creator, against creation and against our brothers and sisters”, and honest repentance.

“We should not think that our efforts – even our small gestures – don’t matter”, he said. He also suggested that the “works of mercy” recommended by the Pontiff would differ from the traditional works of corporal and spiritual mercy, in that they would require the involvement of communities and perhaps governments.

Francis said Thursday that care for creation actually belongs on both lists, spiritual and corporal.

Francis said the world’s poor are the least responsible for climate change, but the most affected by it, and he made an appeal to “hear the cry of the Earth as much as the cry of the poor”.

It will spearhead the Church’s humanitarian work internationally, including oversight of funds allocated to charities, focusing on “migrants, those in need, the sick, the excluded and marginalized, the imprisoned and the unemployed, as well as victims of armed conflict, natural disasters, and all forms of slavery and torture”, the pope wrote.