With this new formulary, the Church is offering liturgical, spiritual and communal support for the care we all need to exercise of nature, our common home. Such service is indeed a great act of faith, hope and charity,” said Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. “This Mass dedicated to taking care of creation, calls us to be faithful stewards of what God has entrusted to us – not only in daily choices and public policies, but also in our prayer, our worship, and our way of living in the world.”

Background from the Vatican

In the Roman Missal there are 49 different Masses and prayers for various needs and occasions. Of these, 17 are dedicated to civil needs and this new liturgical text will now become a part of this category. An official decree by the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, approved by Pope Leo XIV and dated June 8, was also released, marking the addition of the formulary to the Roman Missal.

This liturgical text was developed in collaboration with several Vatican dicasteries and “was strongly inspired by Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si,’ which this year celebrates the 10th anniversary of its publication.” The release of the formulary also falls on the year of the 35th anniversary of St. John Paul II’s 1990 message for the World Day of Peace, titled “Peace with God the Creator, Peace with all of Creation”.