God allows the world to evolve, he said, and so when people ask “Where was God” when the natural disaster struck, the believer replies, “He was there suffering with his creatures and receiving into his peace the victims who were knocking at the door of his paradise”.
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“In a world where almost everything has a price tag, it’s time for us to affirm once again that creation is not for sale”, he said.
“Realize that when we hurt the Earth, we also hurt the poor”, Turkson added, echoing the people.
Thursday marks World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, an occasion designated by Pope Francis past year. In his Motu Proprio “Humanam progressionem”, signed August 17, Pope Francis stressed that the Church is called to promote the integral development of the human person in the light of the Gospel, which “takes place by attending to the inestimable goods of justice, peace, and the care of creation”. “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me”, the text says. The spiritual works include such acts as admonishing sinners and praying for others.
Caring for creation, then, marks a new opportunity not only to get a green thumb, but to practice mercy while doing so.
“Today is a day of tears”, Pope Francis said Friday, October 4, 2013, as he spoke of a shipwreck off the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa a day earlier, in which at least 111 people died.
As he did a year ago on the day of prayer, Pope Francis asked Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household, to give the homily during the prayer service.
He wrote that wealthy nations, which have profited from the exploitation of the environment, should now begin paying an “ecological debt” that they owe to poorer nations.
“We should not think that our efforts – even our small gestures – don’t matter”, he said. He said, “It is a great sign of ecumenical progress that Christians in all churches are joining together in prayer at the same time to praise God for his work, to seek his protection on it and to re-commit themselves to safeguarding it”. “We are called to respond to it that way, with prayer”.
Also speaking at the press conference introducing the new document, Terence Ward, the author of The Guardian of Mercy, said that care for the environment should not only be added to the list of works of mercy, but recognized as “the highest work of mercy because it includes all the others”.
“Economics and politics, society and culture can not be dominated by thinking only of the short-term and immediate financial or electoral gains”, Francis said, suggesting more ambitious action might be needed to curb climate change.
His remarks coincide with Francis’ Holy Year of Mercy, which focuses on the church’s merciful side.
“God gave us a bountiful garden, but we have turned it into a polluted wasteland of “debris, desolation and filth”.
“Global warming continues, due in part to human activity: 2015 was the warmest year on record, and 2016 will likely be warmer still”.
Mankind is called to “till and keep” the earth in “a balanced and respectful way”, he said, noting that “to till too much, to keep too little, is to sin”.
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Care of creation should also contribute “to shaping the culture and society in which we live”, Pope Francis said, adding that economics, politics, society and culture “cannot be dominated by thinking only of the short-term and immediate financial or electoral gains”.
