Cardinal Tobin: Laudato Si’, giving thanks for all God’s creation
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Vol. 6. No. 22
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
On Wednesday, July 9, Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass for the Care of Creation in the Borgo Laudato Si’ — the gardens at Castel Gandolfo established by Pope Francis to continue the important work of caring for creation and our common home.
In the words of his beautiful Canticle of the Sun, St. Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs” (Laudato Si’, #1). Our world, indeed, all of God’s creation, is not an object to be manipulated by us. It is like a sister, our “Mother Earth,” to be treated with reverence, respect and loving care.
I hope you have an opportunity to read, or re-read, Laudato Si’ in its entirety. You’ll discover that the sound bites you’ve read or heard in the news media don’t do it justice. There is so much more there to be savored and reflected upon!
Laudato Si’ is not a political, economic or scientific treatise. It is an encyclical, a “profound letter” addressed by the pope to Church leaders, to the faithful and to all women and men of good will on a matter of great importance to the Church and the world. Specifically, the encyclical speaks to the world community about our responsibility to nurture and protect all that God has made.
This encyclical is deeply rooted in a hymn of praise whose final verse concerning Sister Death was composed by St. Francis of Assisi on his deathbed in 1226. We call this magnificent Franciscan hymn The Canticle of the Sun, and unless we appreciate its significance as an expression of authentic Christian ecology, we cannot grasp the full importance of the profound teaching in Laudato Si’.
Pope Francis said, “I do not want to write this encyclical without turning to that attractive and compelling figure, whose name I took as my guide and inspiration when I was elected Bishop of Rome. I believe that St. Francis is the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable, and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically. He is the patron saint of all who study and work in the area of ecology, and he is also much loved by non-Christians.”
As Pope Leo notes in his homily in the Borgo Laudato Si’ (see selection below) Francis of Assisi was particularly concerned for God’s creation and for the poor and outcast. He loved, and was deeply loved for his joy, his generous self-giving, his openheartedness. He was a mystic and a pilgrim who lived in simplicity and in wonderful harmony with God, with others, with nature and with himself. He shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace.
Laudato Si’ addresses this inseparable bond between care for the environment and the love of humanity, which alone makes justice and peace possible. We cannot be authentically eco-friendly unless we are also unselfish, loving and fair in our treatment of our fellow human beings—especially those who are most vulnerable, the poor, the sick and the unborn.
A profound reverence and respect for all God’s creatures (for all things visible and invisible) springs not from philosophy or science, but from the deeply personal love each of us is called to have for our Creator God. Because we love God, we love every good thing that God has made.
And so, we sing with St. Francis of Assisi a hymn of praise for Brother Sun and Sister Moon—and for earth and sky, wind and water, and all our sisters and brothers in the one family of God. We offer this hymn conscious that without the help of God’s grace we would not be worthy to stand in the Lord’s presence and give him thanks. After all, we are sinners who have abused the gifts God has given us, including the gifts of earth and sky, water and wind.
Awareness of our sinfulness, of our culpability in the serious challenges we face environmentally is central to Laudato Si’. Pope Leo follows in the footsteps of his predecessors. He does not shy away from his responsibility to speak with a prophetic voice whenever it is necessary to remind us that indifference is a sin, and that each one of us will be held accountable for our stewardship of God’s creation.
Let’s read Laudato Si’ prayerfully with open hearts and minds. Let’s sing joyfully this verse of The Canticle of the Sun: “Praised be you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs.”
Sincerely yours in Christ the Redeemer,
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R.
Archbishop of Newark
We Are His Witnesses is a pastoral initiative launched on Pentecost in June 2025 that invites all of us to walk together on a journey—a path of pastoral conversion. Inspired by the Word of God, and rooted in Pope Francis’s Evangelii Gaudium* (The Joy of the Gospel), this initiative calls on the entire Church to reimagine parish life, mission, and ministry in response to a changing world.
The realities we face as a Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Newark are both urgent and undeniable: parish membership, Mass attendance, and sacramental participation have declined. The number of priests to serve as pastors is decreasing. Yet, the overall population of our region continues to grow, offering new and fertile ground for evangelization.
This means more people—Catholic and non-Catholic alike—offering a renewed opportunity for outreach and evangelization.
Learn more about We Are His Witnesses at www.WeAreHisWitnesses.org.
*The following section of Evangelii Gaudium emphasizes the urgent need for a pastoral and missionary conversion across the entire Church. It calls for moving beyond mere maintenance or outdated structures toward a dynamic, outward-facing Church driven by evangelization. All levels — from the papacy to parishes — are urged to undergo renewal that fosters openness, dialogue, and creative adaptation to better fulfill Christ’s mission in today’s world. This transformation must be rooted in fidelity to the Gospel and carried out with courage, unity, and participation. The We Are His Witnesses pastoral initiative of the Archdiocese embodies this vision, inviting all the faithful to embrace a renewed missionary identity and actively witness to the Gospel in every aspect of parish and community life.
Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis
II. Pastoral Activity and Conversion (25-28, 33)
25. I am aware that nowadays documents do not arouse the same interest as in the past and that they are quickly forgotten. Nevertheless, I want to emphasize that what I am trying to express here has a programmatic significance and important consequences. I hope that all communities will devote the necessary effort to advancing along the path of a pastoral and missionary conversion which cannot leave things as they presently are. “Mere administration” can no longer be enough.[21] Throughout the world, let us be “permanently in a state of mission”.[22]
26. Paul VI invited us to deepen the call to renewal and to make it clear that renewal does not only concern individuals but the entire Church. Let us return to a memorable text which continues to challenge us. “The Church must look with penetrating eyes within herself, ponder the mystery of her own being… This vivid and lively self-awareness inevitably leads to a comparison between the ideal image of the Church as Christ envisaged her and loved her as his holy and spotless bride (cf. Eph 5:27), and the actual image which the Church presents to the world today… This is the source of the Church’s heroic and impatient struggle for renewal: the struggle to correct those flaws introduced by her members which her own self-examination, mirroring her exemplar, Christ, points out to her and condemns”.[23] The Second Vatican Council presented ecclesial conversion as openness to a constant self-renewal born of fidelity to Jesus Christ: “Every renewal of the Church essentially consists in an increase of fidelity to her own calling… Christ summons the Church as she goes her pilgrim way… to that continual reformation of which she always has need, in so far as she is a human institution here on earth”.[24]
There are ecclesial structures which can hamper efforts at evangelization, yet even good structures are only helpful when there is a life constantly driving, sustaining and assessing them. Without new life and an authentic evangelical spirit, without the Church’s “fidelity to her own calling”, any new structure will soon prove ineffective.
An ecclesial renewal which cannot be deferred
27. I dream of a “missionary option”, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation. The renewal of structures demanded by pastoral conversion can only be understood in this light: as part of an effort to make them more mission-oriented, to make ordinary pastoral activity on every level more inclusive and open, to inspire in pastoral workers a constant desire to go forth and in this way to elicit a positive response from all those whom Jesus summons to friendship with himself. As John Paul II once said to the Bishops of Oceania: “All renewal in the Church must have mission as its goal if it is not to fall prey to a kind of ecclesial introversion”.[25]
28. The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community. While certainly not the only institution which evangelizes, if the parish proves capable of self-renewal and constant adaptivity, it continues to be “the Church living in the midst of the homes of her sons and daughters”.[26] This presumes that it really is in contact with the homes and the lives of its people, and does not become a useless structure out of touch with people or a self-absorbed group made up of a chosen few. The parish is the presence of the Church in a given territory, an environment for hearing God’s word, for growth in the Christian life, for dialogue, proclamation, charitable outreach, worship and celebration.[27] In all its activities the parish encourages and trains its members to be evangelizers.[28] It is a community of communities, a sanctuary where the thirsty come to drink in the midst of their journey, and a center of constant missionary outreach. We must admit, though, that the call to review and renew our parishes has not yet sufficed to bring them nearer to people, to make them environments of living communion and participation, and to make them completely mission-oriented.
33. Pastoral ministry in a missionary key seeks to abandon the complacent attitude that says: “We have always done it this way.” I invite everyone to be bold and creative in this task of rethinking the goals, structures, style and methods of evangelization in their respective communities. A proposal of goals without an adequate communal search for the means of achieving them will inevitably prove illusory. I encourage everyone to apply the guidelines found in this document generously and courageously, without inhibitions or fear. The important thing is to not walk alone, but to rely on each other as brothers and sisters, and especially under the leadership of the bishops, in a wise and realistic pastoral discernment.
(Source: Vatican)
A Message from Pope Leo XIV
We are enjoying this fraternal and peaceful moment in the midst of a world that is in flames, as a result of both global warming and armed conflicts. The message of Pope Francis in his Encyclicals Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti continues to be timely. We can imagine ourselves in the Gospel we have just heard, as we reflect on the fear of the disciples amid the tempest, a fear shared by a large part of humanity today. At the same time, in the heart of this Jubilee Year, we believe and say over and over again: there is hope! We have encountered that hope in Jesus. He calms the storm. His power does not break down, but builds up. It does not destroy, but calls into being and bestows new life. We too should be asking ourselves: “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?” (Mt 8:27).
The amazement expressed in this question is the first step towards freedom from fear. Jesus lived and prayed around the Sea of Galilee. That is where he called his first disciples in the setting of their daily lives and work. The parables with which he proclaimed the Kingdom of God reveal his deep connection with that land and those waters, with the rhythm of the seasons and with the life of creatures.
The evangelist Matthew describes the tempest as an upheaval of the earth (the Greek word he uses is seismos). Matthew uses the same term for the earthquake that took place at the moment of Jesus’ death and at the dawn of his resurrection. Christ rises above this upheaval, his feet firmly planted. Already here, the Gospel enables us to catch a glimpse of the Risen Lord, present in our confused history. Jesus’ rebuke to the wind and the sea demonstrates his power to give life and salvation, a power greater than those forces that cause creatures to tremble.
So, we can ask ourselves once more: “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?” (Mt 8:27). The hymn from the Letter to the Colossians that we have heard seems to answer this very question: “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created” (Col 1:15-16). Buffeted by the storm that day, his disciples were overcome with fear; they were not yet able to profess this knowledge about Jesus. Today, however, in accordance with the faith handed down to us, we can go further and say: “He is the head of the Body, the Church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent” (v. 18). Those words, in every age, make us and commit us to be a living Body: the Body of which Christ is the Head. Our mission to care for creation, to foster peace and reconciliation, is Jesus’ own mission, the mission that the Lord entrusts to us. We hear the cry of the earth and we hear the cry of the poor, because this plea has reached the heart of God. Our indignation is his indignation; our work is his work.
In this regard, the psalmist’s song inspires us: “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty” (Ps 29:3-4). That voice commits the Church to speak prophetically, even when it calls for the courage to oppose the destructive power of the princes of this world. The unbreakable covenant between Creator and his creatures inspires our minds and galvanizes our efforts to ensure that evil may turn into good, injustice into justice, and greed to sharing.
With infinite love, God has created all things and given them life. That is why Saint Francis of Assisi could call every creature his brother, his sister and his mother. Only a contemplative gaze can change our relationship with creation and bring us out of the ecological crisis brought on by the breakdown of our relationship with God, with our neighbors and with the earth that is the effect of sin (cf. Laudato Si’, 66).
The Eucharist we celebrate sustains and gives meaning to our work. As Pope Francis wrote, “it is in the Eucharist that all that has been created finds its greatest exaltation. Grace, which tends to manifest itself tangibly, found unsurpassable expression when God himself became man and gave himself as food for his creatures. The Lord, in the culmination of the mystery of the Incarnation, chose to reach our intimate depths through a fragment of matter. He comes not from above, but from within; he comes that we might find him in this world of ours” (Laudato Si’, 236).
—A selection from the homily of Pope Leo XIV during Mass for the Care of Creation at Borgo Laudato Si’ (Castel Gandolfo), on Wednesday, 9 July 2025.
My Prayer for You
Please join me in praying these words of Saint Augustine quoted by Pope Leo XIV:
“Lord, your works praise you, that we may love you; may we love you, that your works may praise you” (Saint Augustine). May this be the harmony that we spread throughout the world. Amen.