One of Pope Francis' first environmental reflections still rings true

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June 6, 2025

Pope Francis kisses a boy as he arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican June 5, 2013, World Environment Day. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Two years before the release of his encyclical Laudato Si', and just more than two months after he was elected pope, the late Pope Francis reflected on the environment in his general audience remarks on June 5, 2013 — the date observed each year by the United Nations as World Environment Day. Though spoken a dozen years ago, his words still ring true today:

When we talk about the environment, about creation, my thoughts go to the first pages of the Bible, to the Book of Genesis, where it says that God puts men and women on the earth to till it and keep it (cf. 2:15). And these questions occur to me: What does cultivating and preserving the earth mean? Are we truly cultivating and caring for creation? Or are we exploiting and neglecting it? The verb "cultivate" reminds me of the care a farmer takes to ensure that his land will be productive and that his produce will be shared.
What great attention, enthusiasm and dedication! Cultivating and caring for creation is an instruction of God which he gave not only at the beginning of history, but has also given to each one of us; it is part of his plan; it means making the world increase with responsibility, transforming it so that it may be a garden, an inhabitable place for us all. Moreover on various occasions Benedict XVI has recalled that this task entrusted to us by God the Creator requires us to grasp the pace and the logic of creation. Instead we are often guided by the pride of dominating, possessing, manipulating and exploiting; we do not "preserve" the earth, we do not respect it, we do not consider it as a freely-given gift to look after.
We are losing our attitude of wonder, of contemplation, of listening to creation and thus we no longer manage to interpret in it what Benedict XVI calls "the rhythm of the love-story between God and man". Why does this happen? Why do we think and live horizontally, we have drifted away from God, we no longer read his signs.
However "cultivating and caring" do not only entail the relationship between us and the environment, between man and creation. They also concern human relations. The popes have spoken of a human ecology, closely connected with environmental ecology. We are living in a time of crisis; we see it in the environment, but above all we see it in men and women. The human person is in danger: this much is certain — the human person is in danger today, hence the urgent need for human ecology! And the peril is grave, because the cause of the problem is not superficial but deeply rooted. It is not merely a question of economics but of ethics and anthropology. The Church has frequently stressed this; and many are saying: yes, it is right, it is true... but the system continues unchanged since what dominates are the dynamics of an economy and a finance that are lacking in ethics. It is no longer man who commands, but money, money, cash commands. And God our Father gave us the task of protecting the earth.

Francis goes on to explain and critique the "culture of waste" that he says "tends to become a common mentality that infects everyone." And he points to scripture stories that demonstrate how when we ensure nothing is wasted and share fairly, we can meet everyone's needs. You can read his full remarks here on the newly redesigned Vatican website.

What else is new on EarthBeat:

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The church's concern about global warming cannot die with Pope Francis. The ball has been passed to Pope Leo XIV

Idina Menzel's 'Redwood' brings nature's healing power to Broadway

by Jim McDermott

"Redwood" billed itself as a musical about a grieving mother who is healed by her time in the forest. But what made the show extraordinary is the way in which as we watch Jesse's (Idina Menzel) story, we, too, are afforded a taste of the ways in which nature can heal us.

What's happening in other climate news:

The man whose weather forecast saved the world —Nazaneen Ghaffar for The New York Times

Fearing radioactive waste, a western Pennsylvania community fights to stop a landfill's re-opening —Kiley Bense for Inside Climate News

Trump EPA rollbacks would weaken rules projected to save billions of dollars and thousands of lives —Seth Borenstein, M.K. Wildeman, Melina Walling, Joshua A. Bickel And Matthew Daly for the Associated Press

Trump is slashing federal climate action. States could cost-effectively fill the gap –Sarah DeWeerdt for Anthropocene

New climate maps show a transformed United States –Al Shaw, Abrahm Lustgarten and Jeremy W. Goldsmith for ProPublica

Churches become solar-plus-storage resilience hubs in Louisiana –William Driscoll for PV Magazine

Mayors are making climate action personal. It’s working. —Matt Simon for Grist

Final Beat:

Republicans' massive tax legislation working through Congress has attracted much attention this week, in the wake of a major public feud between billionaire Elon Musk and President Donald Trump. Buried in the bill, though, is the elimination of Inflation Reduction Act tax credits to cut costs of solar power and other clean energy projects at least 30% for individuals, businesses and nonprofits, including religious institutions.

Does your Catholic organization have a solar or clean energy project in the works that is now at risk from the potential repeal of the clean energy tax credits? If so, we want to know. Email environment correspondent Brian Roewe at broewe@ncronline.org or message him on Signal at brianroewe.78.

Thanks for reading EarthBeat.

Stephanie Clary
Environment Editor
National Catholic Reporter
sclary@ncronline.org