The Vatican on Thursday released a new rite for Mass that can “be used to ask God for the ability to care for creation,” a Vatican official said, a sign of the church’s commitment to environmental protection, especially climate action.
The new Mass, titled “Mass for the Care of Creation,” is inspired, in part, by Pope Francis’ landmark 2015 encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si’,” or “Praise Be To You.” It was approved by Pope Leo XIV, who appears determined to carry forward his predecessor’s engagement on the issue.
“With this Mass, the Church is offering liturgical, spiritual and communal support for the care we all need to exercise of nature, our common home,” said Cardinal Michael Czerny, presenting the rite at a Vatican news conference on Thursday.
The new Mass was published a day after Pope Leo stated his concerns for the environment through a message for an upcoming day of prayer “for the care of creation,” on Sept. 1. Leo warned of “the evidence in various parts of the world that our earth is being ravaged.”
That meant, he wrote, that “environmental justice” could “no longer be regarded as an abstract concept or a distant goal” but had become “an urgent need that involves much more than simply protecting the environment.”
“For it is a matter of justice — social, economic and human,” he added.
The idea for the new Mass began under Francis, who made care for the environment a cornerstone of his papacy. There was also a desire to respond to “various requests for a liturgical way of celebrating the meaning and the message of ‘Laudato Si’,’” Cardinal Czerny said.
The Mass features readings and prayers on the theme of creation. But “the theme of creation is already present in the liturgy,” it’s not something new, said Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, who was involved in creating the Mass. “It’s like a substrata, a base, a foundation, a principle that continually emerges in the liturgy.”
There are “various spaces” on the liturgical calender when the Mass could be celebrated, he said, primarily on weekdays. But national bishops’ conferences could also indicate a specific day on which the Mass could be celebrated, he added.
Cardinal Czerny said Leo would use this rite while celebrating a private Mass on July 9, with the staff of the Borgo Laudato Si’ ecology project. Established by Pope Francis in 2023 on the grounds of the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo, the Borgo is a space for the development of education on the ecology inspired by Francis’ encyclical.
In his message a day earlier, the pope described the Borgo as “an example of how people can live, work and build community by applying the principles of “Laudato Si’.” Leo is expected to go to Castel Gandolfo on Sunday for a two-week period of rest.
There are already a number of Masses and prayers designed for “various needs and occasions,” Cardinal Czerny noted, including for countries, for human labor, for the protection of civilians during conflicts, and to invoke rain, to name a few. “Now we have one for the care of creation,” he said.
The decree for the new rite states: “At this time it is evident that the work of creation is seriously threatened because of the irresponsible use and abuse of the goods God has endowed to our care,” and so it was “appropriate” to add a special Mass.
Earlier this week, Roman Catholic leaders made public an appeal to world leaders to address the climate crisis more forcefully, in a document titled “A call for Climate Justice and the Common Home: Ecological Conversion, Transformation and Resistance to False Solutions.”
Elisabetta Povoledo is a Times reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years.
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