2024 Month for Protecting All Life A Message from the Laudato Si’ Desk “Let us hope and act with creation”

Pope Francis in his message for this year’s World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Hope and Act with Creation, invites us in light of next year’s Holy Year celebration to walk together with hope and humility in the face of difficulties.

To hope and act with creation, then, means above all to join forces and to walk together with all men and women of good will. In this way, we can help to rethink, “among other things, the question of human power, its meaning and its limits.”

I am kept alive. Have you had a thought like this well up from the bottom of your heart lately? It proves to be obvious that we were neither born nor live on our own but that we are alive now through various connections. But do you, do I, ever feel it deeply?

In his earthly life, Jesus gazed on nature with goodwill and wonder, and spoke of God’s gentle nourishment of His creation: “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” (Matthew 6:26) (Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan, Behold, It Was Very Good: An Invitation to Integral Ecology, 51).

Jesus’ sense of wonder, his wonder-filled gaze, shows us what the integral ecology is like, that is, the way to live in harmony with God, with others, with nature, and with ourselves. During this Month for Protecting All Life, let us look with the marveling gaze of Jesus at the connections of life that surround us.

In July of this year, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan released its first pastoral document in 23 years, Behold, It Was Very Good: An Invitation to Integral Ecology. We hope that you will read this book during this month (an English-language translation is in preparation) with its invitation to work to protect all life. Here is a passage that calls to us all:

Many global citizens live in ways that value our common home and continue to develop initiatives that foster care for the earth. How blessed we could be if we would join them and be led by them on a journey to “protect all life” with patience and hope, remembering the heart of our Creator who is full of mercy and truth. (45)

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The Christian denominations of the world have designated the month from September 1 to October 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, as the Season of Creation, and are working to improve our relationship with God and nature by prayer, celebration, and conversion.

The Catholic Church participates in this ecumenical engagement, and the Pope sends an annual message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation each September 1.

In addition, the Catholic Church in Japan has responded to Pope Francis’ call during his visit to Japan in 2019 by designating the same period as the Month for Protecting All Life since 2020, calling on people to take concrete action while deepening their awareness and understanding.

• Establishment of Month for the Protecting All Life　(English)
  A cerca del establecimiento del “Mes para proteger toda la vida” (Spanish)
• Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation [1st September 2024] (27 June 2024) | Francis (vatican.va)