Mass for care of creation ready to debut in US churches

EarthBeat Weekly
Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change

August 28, 2026

Pope Leo XIV leads the Mass for the Care of Creation, in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, July 9, 2025. (Pool Via AP/Yara Nardi)

The start of September marks the beginning of the Season of Creation, a monthlong period when Christians offer prayers for God's creation while pursuing actions to preserve it.

In the years I've reported on this ecumenical observation, I have learned about Catholic parishes and communities finding different ways to incorporate ecological themes into liturgies and prayer services. Now, they have a new option.

As I reported Thursday at EarthBeat, the Vatican earlier this month finalized English and Spanish translations of the new Mass for the care of creation that the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments added to the Roman missal last year.

The set of texts, known as a formulary, provides creation-themed prayers and suggests readings for the Liturgy of the Word, including passages from Matthew's Gospel where Jesus calms the sea and where he instructs his disciples to learn from the birds in the air and flowers in the field to trust in God's providence.

Pope Leo XIV celebrated the first Mass for the care of creation last summer outdoors amid the gardens of the Borgo Laudato Si' ecology project in Castel Gandolfo.

With the translations now approved by the U.S. bishops, churches in America can now do the same.

Preparations are under way already for the creation care formulary to be used in the Seattle and St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdioceses, among other places.

Jesuit Fr. James Hug, who for years has developed liturgical resources for the Season of Creation, called the inclusion of the Mass for the care of creation in the Roman Missal a major step.

"It's official, and that makes it legitimate to use," he told me. And that Vatican stamp of approval means a lot, he added, for the many priests who have hesitated to use other creation-centered liturgical resources in the past.

Corinna Laughlin, a consultant for the Seattle Archdiocese's liturgy office, agreed, telling me "It says that this is the concern of the whole church."

Both suggested that the new Mass formulary holds the potential to expand awareness of church teaching on the environment, and with it, cultivate the ecological conversion Leo and others have said is essential to spur the level of collective action needed to address crises like climate change, biodiversity loss and deforestation.

"What we lift up at Mass really shapes our understanding of what church teaching is, even without going to other documents," Laughlin said. " ... It tells us this is part of what we believe. This is significant enough and substantial enough that this is part of the Mass."

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What's happening in other climate news:

A new Colorado River plan is here — and Arizona will take the biggest water cuts —Alex Hager for Arizona Public Media

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Clean air policies help kids breathe and think better —Keerti Gopal for Inside Climate News

Big Tech's data centre boom poised to drive up carbon emissions —Alexandra White and Nolan Shaffer for the Financial Times

E.P.A. moves to curb public input on data centers —Maxine Joselow for The New York Times

MAHA moms take on coal —David Gelles for The New York Times

Solar and wind continue to push coal off the West's grid —Jonathan Thompson for High Country News

Leaked memo shows how U.S. aims to weaken global limits on plastic production —Conor McGlone, Jake Spring, Emma Bryce and Benard Ogembo for the Washington Post

Final Beat:

At the top of today's newsletter, I recapped my report on the Mass for the care of creation being available for use in U.S. churches.

Is your parish, diocese, religious order or congregation planning to celebrate the new formulary for creation during the Season of Creation? Or at another time on the liturgical calendar?

Let me know by dropping a note at broewe@ncronline.org.

As always, thanks for reading EarthBeat.

Brian Roewe
Environment Correspondent
National Catholic Reporter
broewe@ncronline.org