In the message for the 11th World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, celebrated on Tuesday, September 1st, the Pope denounces the links between war and the ecological crisis and issues an appeal for “ecological conversion”.
“The true instruments for building peace are not weapons of destruction, but rather truth, dialogue, patience, kindness, justice, mercy, understanding, care, and love.” So writes Pope Leo XIV in the message for the 11th World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, celebrated on Tuesday, September 1st, on the theme “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.”
The Pope denounces that, while the prophet Isaiah announced the transformation of “that which destroys life into something that sustains it,” today all too often the exact opposite happens, with efforts still “oriented toward violence and war.” The latter, Leo XIV warns, “produces wounds that go well beyond the battlefield”: it “claims victims, tears apart families and forces millions of people to leave their homes, fueling fear, injustice and division,” leaving behind “social and ecological destruction that lasts for generations.”
The interaction between armed conflicts and environmental degradation, the Pontiff observes, “often creates a vicious circle that destroys ecosystems, contaminates essential resources such as air and water, and undermines food security.” Rooted “in distorted desires and in a misuse of human freedom and power,” war “stands as a counter-witness to the Gospel of peace.”
Not just structures, but hearts to be renewed
“To build a peaceful society we must not only reform structures, but also renew our hearts.” Pope Leo XIV firmly reiterates this in the message. Violence, injustice and ecological degradation, he explains, are not “simply the result of imperfect systems or structures,” but are rooted in the human heart, “the place where the deepest struggles take place”: “the conflicts that torment humanity are in many ways the outward expression of inner conflicts and divisions.”
The deepest causes of conflicts and of the exploitation of creation, the Pontiff adds, stem from “an ethical and cultural crisis that includes the loss of the sense of limits, the desire for domination, the pursuit of immediate profit, and the failure to recognize the dignity that God has given to every human person.” Hence the appeal for an authentic “ecological conversion”: “without this inner transformation, peace remains fragile and short-lived.”
Finally, Leo XIV invites us to imagine “a world in which the energies currently employed in war are directed toward integral human development, the overcoming of poverty, the defense of human dignity, and reconciliation among divided peoples,” in order to move “from the desert to the garden, from division to communion, and from violence to peace.”
📖 Read the full text of the Holy Father’s message for the 11th World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation: http://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/it/messages/creation/documents/20260815-messaggio-giornata-curacreato.html