Pope Francis, who has been in hospital since February 14, 2025, urged respect for global ecology, so that humanity could ‘allow nature to rest from our greedy exploitations’.
A statement in Portuguese issued by the Supreme Pontiff’s office on Ash Wednesday, marking the start of the 40-day Lent fasting period, also hoped that the Catholic Church in Brazil would contribute its best during the 30th Conference of Parties (COP30) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in Belem in the Brazilian Amazon.
The letter, addressed to Roman Catholics in Brazil, invited “all Brazilian people to follow, during Lent, a path of conversion based on the Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’”.
An ‘encyclical’ is a papal letter issued to all Roman Catholic bishops. Laudato Si, issued in 2015, calling on humanity to save the earth.
The Pope stated that he wished to draw the attention of all humanity to the urgent need for a necessary change of attitude in our relations with the environment, recalling that the current “ecological crisis is a call to a profound interior conversion”.
“In this sense, my predecessor of venerable memory, Saint John Paul II, already warned that it was “necessary to encourage and support the ‘ecological conversion’ that has made humanity more sensitive” (Audience, 17 January 2001) to the theme of care for our Common Home,” he added.
“May we all, with the special help of God’s grace in this jubilee season, change our convictions and practices to allow nature to rest from our greedy exploitation,” said Francis.
The Pontiff also hoped that in Belem, “nations and international organizations can effectively commit to practices that help overcome the climate crisis and preserve the marvelous work of Creation, which God has entrusted to us and which we have the responsibility to pass on to future generations”.