A Call to Heed Creation’s Cry: Pope Leo XIV Opens Season of Creation, Urging ‘It Is Not Yet Too Late’

Pope Leo XIV opened the Catholic Church’s five-week Season of Creation on Wednesday, delivering a powerful message of hope and urgency at the Borgo Laudato Si’ ecology village in the papal gardens at Castel Gandolfo. “It is not yet too late,” the Pope declared, urging the faithful to repair humanity’s fractured relationship with the environment. Celebrating Mass on the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Leo called on worshippers to step back from the daily “noise” and “hear the melodious voice of creation,” recognizing their responsibility for protecting it. He emphasized that awareness of human failure should lead to renewed commitment to “restoring the relationships among all creatures according to the will of their Creator.” The Pope’s homily linked the destruction of the environment with armed conflict, suggesting that instruments of destruction could be “redirected toward life… the care of the poor, the nourishment of the hungry, and the safeguarding of creation.”

The Borgo Laudato Si’ village, founded by Pope Francis, whose 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’ drew inspiration from St. Francis of Assisi, serves as a fitting backdrop for the Season of Creation. The observance concludes on October 4, the feast marking the 800th anniversary of St. Francis’s death, a day that recalls his Canticle of the Creatures, which praises God through the sun, moon, wind, and water. As the Church enters this season of reflection and action, Pope Leo’s message resonates with a world facing environmental crises and conflict: it is not yet too late to choose a different path, to embrace our role as stewards of creation, and to restore the harmony that God intended from the beginning.