(CNSNews.com) - At an audience in Rome on Wednesday, Pope Francis said that he and Patriarch Bartholomew of the Eastern Orthodox Church had prepared a message that they are going to release on Friday, which will be the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.
In their message, the pope said, according to Vatican Radio, “we invite all to assume a respectful and responsible attitude toward Creation.”
The message, he said, will “also appeal to all who occupy influential roles, to listen to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor, who suffer most from ecological imbalances.”
In a 2015 letter announcing the creation of an annual “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation,” Pope Francis called on people to ask for “mercy for the sins committed against the world in which we live.” He wrote:
“The annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation offers to individual believers and to the community a precious opportunity to renew our personal participation in this vocation as custodians of Creation, raising to God our thanks for the marvelous works that He has entrusted to our care, invoking His help for the protection of creation and His mercy for the sins committed against the world in which we live.”