About 1,600 years ago, the brilliant Doctor of the Church St. Ambrose admonished those of wealth who clung to their sense of entitlement: “You are not making a gift of what is yours to the poor man, but you are giving him back what is his. You have been appropriating things that are meant to be for the common use of everyone. The earth belongs to everyone, not to the rich.”
With these prophetic words, St. Ambrose eloquently highlighted and linked together the Catholic Social Teaching principles known today as the “preferential concern for the poor and vulnerable,” the “common good,” and the “care for creation.”
In the first encyclical letter dedicated to the environment in the history of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis voiced similar concerns to those of St. Ambrose. In his letter titled “Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home” – a must read – Pope Francis warned: “When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities – to offer just a few examples – it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected.”
Yes, everything is connected! We have no time to waste in recognizing, healing, and strengthening these connections.
And there’s no better time to begin than now, during this “Season of Creation” which runs from Sept. 1 to Oct. 4 – the feast of St. Francis of Assisi patron saint of ecology.
More than ever before, much of our planet, and many of our brothers and sisters, are greatly suffering.
According to the World Meteorological Organization the past 11 years have been the warmest on record, and ocean temperatures continue heating up with no end in sight.
Global hunger, starvation, and thirst are worsening because of numerous ongoing armed conflicts, corporate greed, extremely inadequate governmental responses, and overall individual indifference. And global warming due mostly to human induced climate change, is seriously contributing to this hunger, starvation, and thirst crisis throughout so much of the world.
According to Oxfam, climate change has caused more intense and frequent heat waves, intense droughts and floods with the number of disasters increasing five-fold over the past 50 years.
Oxfam cites that the wealthy “G20 countries are among the most polluting nations in the world, collectively responsible for nearly 77% of carbon emissions. This dwarfs emissions from the 10 countries most impacted by climate change which are 0.1%.”
Oxfam stresses our individual and governmental need to urge the G20 leaders to drastically cut emissions and justly compensate poor nations – 18 days of fossil fuel companies’ profit could cover the entire UN humanitarian appeal for an entire year!
Furthermore, Oxfam prophetically states: “It is extraordinary that as humanity faces this existential crisis, there is still more incentive to destroy our planet than to save it.”
Pope Leo, in his September 1, 2026 message for the 11th “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation” leads with the challenging Scripture from Isaiah: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.”
The Holy Father explains, “The prophet Isaiah spoke of a time when nations ‘shall beat their swords into plowshares (Is 2:4), transforming what destroys life into what sustains it. But today, we too often witness the very opposite, as efforts continue to be directed toward violence and war …
“The wounds of war and the degradation of the earth, then, are profoundly linked to the condition of the human heart. The conflicts that torment humanity are in many ways the outward expression of interior discord and division. When the heart is distorted, relationships suffer, and the structures we build begin to reflect that disorder …
“In order to build a peaceful society, therefore, we must not only reform structures but also renew our hearts.”
Please individually and communally read Pope Leo’s inspiring “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.”
About the Author
Tony Magliano is not a member of the AUSCP. He is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at tmag6@comcast.net.