2025 Month for Protecting All Life
Bishop’s Message from the Laudato Si’ Section
“Ecological Conversion in this Holy Year”

This year the Catholic Church is celebrating a Holy Year. It is a special time for pilgrimages, works of charity, and the reception of the grace of indulgences. The Holy Year developed from the Jubilee Year recorded in Leviticus 25 of the Old Testament. It is a year of rest and liberation that came once every 50 years. Fields were left fallow. Land that had been sold was returned to its original owner. Your kindred slaves were freed, and debts were forgiven. In other words, it is a time to correct distortions that had occurred for various reasons and to restore society to its original state.

And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family. … In this year of jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property. (Lev. 25: 10, 13)

In Genesis, the face that God created the world, which is the mystery of the work of creation is described mythologically. God created light, sky, sea, land, plants, day and night, stars, animals, and humankind created in the divine image. God created all of this, the whole world, to be very good. God created all of this, the entire world, as something very good. This is not only because each created being “was good,” in God’s sight, but also because all created beings are interdependent, each necessary for the other to sustain life, and this interconnected, mutually supportive relationship within the created order as a whole that is described as “it was very good.”

However, even though we humans are created to help each other and share with one another, we want more for ourselves than we give to others. We get things we don’t need one after another, and because of this we destroy nature and discard so much that we don’t even have places to throw it away. Mass production, mass consumption and mass disposal continue to destroy our relationship with creation. Moreover, we continue to steer society toward immediate profits without considering next generations.

Even among people created in the image of God, we are divided by differences in nationality, ethnicity, religion, and ideology, by whether we are allies or enemies, whether we are considered useful or not. We build walls to exclude others and sometimes even discard them, going so far as taking away their lives.

In modern society people behave as if we are the masters of this world and live with an attitude that it is natural to dominate and exploit. However, Leviticus teaches that everything belongs to the Lord, both the people and the land, and repeatedly conveys God’s words, “I am your God and Lord.” When we try to tackle environmental problems and work for a sustainable society, the first thing we should do is to humbly admit that we are not the masters of this world. Knowing that everything in this world, including ourselves, is a gift from God and praising and thanking God for its wonder, shouldn’t we start from there?

We have distorted the relationship between God and ourselves, nature and ourselves, and among ourselves. The wrinkles of that distortion are especially imposed on those forced into a vulnerable position. The Holy Year is a time of ecological conversion to restore this distorted state to the original relationship in which everything relies on each other that God created and considered to be very good.

In response to Pope Francis’ 2019 visit to Japan, a special period called the Month for Protecting All Life was established in the Church of Japan. It corresponds to the Season of Creation jointly celebrated by Christian denominations around the world. The theme of this year’s Season of Creation is “Peace with Creation”, based on Isaiah 32:14-18.

For the palace will be forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, the joy of wild asses, a pasture for flocks; until a spirit from on high is poured out on us, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. (Isaiah 32:14-18)

Peace cannot be realized without respecting the relationship and order of creation set by God. Pope Leo XIV in his message for this year’s World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation teaches in relation to this theme.

Environmental justice – implicitly proclaimed by the prophets – can no longer be regarded as an abstract concept or a distant goal. It is an urgent need that involves much more than simply protecting the environment. For it is a matter of justice – social, economic and human. For believers it is also a duty born of faith, since the universe reflects the face of Jesus Christ, in whom all things were created and redeemed. In a world where the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters are the first to suffer the devastating effects of climate change, deforestation and pollution, care for creation becomes an expression of our faith and humanity.

It has been ten years since the encyclical Laudato Si’ was published. In this year when Pope Francis has returned to the Lord, the Pope’s call, “What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up?” (LS 160) resonates with even greater significance.

I hope that this year’s Month for Protecting All Life will be a time of prayer and action to spread a way of life that protects all life in both faith and humanity, for the present and for next generations. For this, I recommend to celebrate Masses using the text of the Mass for the Care of Creation which was recently translated into Japanese. I pray for God’s blessings and guidance on your efforts.

August 15, 2025
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary