2026 Season of Creation and Pope Leo XIV’s Message

The Catholic Church celebrates the Season of Creation from September 1 to October 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology.

This year’s theme is “Living Water,” from Ezekiel 47:9-12, which portrays God’s life-giving water flowing from the temple of God and calls all “to immerse in the water, actively safeguarding and working for the renewal of creation so that environmental healing and human well-being may flourish together.”

Here are excerpts from Pope Leo XIV’s message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (https://catholicclimatecovenant.org/resources/season-of-creation-2026/):

“Our Lord Jesus Christ came so that we might have life and have it in abundance. This gift of life lies at the very heart of our mission as disciples and of our shared calling to build a civilization of love.

On this World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, we are once again invited to contemplate the gift of life, to cherish the earth that sustains it, for these are tangible ways of offering praise to our Creator.

Today, we are witnessing many crises and much human suffering. At the same time, it seems that the disruption to the harmonious balance of creation is accelerating. These phenomena are not unrelated; they are a single plea for healing and peace arising from a wounded world.

The God of life, revealed in Jesus Christ, offers a peace that the world cannot give: ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you’ (Jn 14:27). Yet this promise of peace stands in stark contrast to the realities we see in many parts of the world.

The interaction between armed conflicts and environmental degradation often creates a vicious cycle, which destroys ecosystems, contaminates essential resources such as air and water, and undermines food security. This fuels poverty, inequality and new social tensions that can contribute to the emergence of further conflicts.

War creates wounds that damage the whole fabric of life, harming not only individual persons and communities but also their broader network of relationships with the whole human family and their harmony with creation.

The wounds of war and the degradation of the earth, then, are profoundly linked to the condition of the human heart. When the heart is distorted, relationships suffer, and the structures we build begin to reflect that disorder.

Pope Benedict XVI reminded us that ‘the external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast.’

In order to build a peaceful society, therefore, we must not only reform structures but also renew our hearts.

The deep-seated causes of conflict and the exploitation of creation stem from an ethical and cultural crisis: the loss of a sense of limits, the desire for domination, the pursuit of immediate profit, and the inability to recognize the God-given dignity of each human person.

Where hearts are renewed, new possibilities begin to open. What has been used for destruction can be redirected toward life, toward the care of the poor, the nourishment of the hungry, and the safeguarding of creation.

This is the path of authentic ecological conversion.

We are called to safeguard the many ‘ecosystems’ entrusted to us: the ecosystems of creation, of human relationships and of the human heart itself.

The true tools for building peace are not weapons of destruction. Instead, they are truth, dialogue, patience, goodness, justice, mercy, understanding, care and love.

These flow from hearts shaped by the Gospel and sustained by God’s grace. Only these qualities possess the power to transform individuals, renew communities and heal the wounds of our world.

We will move, slowly but surely, from desert to garden, from division to communion, and from violence to peace.

May the Lord grant us the courage to walk along this path, so that in our time, swords may indeed be beaten into plowshares, the promise of the Gospel may take deeper root in our world, and the peace of Christ may reign over all of creation.”