Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
I wonder if you still remember that Pope Francis issued an encyclical on ecology, “Laudato Si” in 2015? The Pope has also designated September 1 every year as the “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation”, inviting us to celebrate the “Season of Creation” with all Christians from this day until the feast of St. Francis of Assisi on October 4, praying together for creation and responding to the cry of the earth.
The Letter to the Romans says that “Creation is groaning” (Rom 8:22), and it is suffering because of our selfishness and unsustainable lifestyles. Our destructive actions have caused the climate crisis, species extinction, and suffering for the poor. The global ecological crisis is imminent, and here in Hong Kong, we are experiencingextreme weather, including extremely hot days, super typhoons, and torrential rains. In the face of this ecological crisis that threatens the very existence of humankind and all species, we may feel helpless, hopeless and powerless.
Yet, the Holy Father reminds us to hold onto hope in this year’s Season of Creation. In his message titled “Hope and Act with the Creation,” he pointed out that the Holy Spirit is constantly guiding the community of believers and calling us to conversion, to a change in lifestyle, so that we can resist human destruction of the naturalenvironment. This conversion requires us to leave behindour arrogant desire to exercise dominion over others and nature, to stop viewing them as objects to be manipulated, and to care for all people and all things.
Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of the promulgation of the encyclical “Laudato Si”, and at the same time, the universal Church will celebrate a Jubilee Year, with the theme of “Pilgrims of Hope”. Therefore, I would like to invite you, brothers and sisters in Christ, in the face of the current ecological crisis, it is important to maintain hope. As long as we unite all forces and collaborate with our brothers and sisters around the world to change the present situation, and continue to undergo conversion, there will still be hope for thefuture. We can bring hope to future generations and to all creation.
