Pope Launches Global Prayer Day to Save the Environment

The Vatican recently announced that Pope Francis has created a global prayer day 'for the Care of Creation,' in order to raise support for protecting the environment.

In a letter released  by the Vatican, Pope Francis said: "I wish to inform you that I have decided to institute in the Catholic Church the 'World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation' which, beginning this year, is to be celebrated on 1 September," The Guardian reported.

The leader of the Catholic Church said the spiritual leader of the Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who is known to have been praying for the environment since the 1980's, has inspired him. "The celebration of this day, on the same date as the Orthodox Church, will be a valuable opportunity to bear witness to our growing communion with our Orthodox brothers and sisters. We live at a time when all Christians are faced with the same decisive challenges, to which we must respond together, in order to be more credible and effective," he said.

According to the letter, the role of the prayer day is to "offer individual believers and communities a fitting opportunity to reaffirm their personal vocation to be stewards of creation and the adoption of appropriate lifestyles."

Francis has proved himself to be a defender of the environment since he became the leader of the world's Catholics. He has been outspoken about global climate change and social injustice as well. This year, he prepared an environmental encyclical, in which he condemned systemic exploitation of the poor and the wasteful use of the nature's resources, issues that had never before been addressed by any other leaders of the Catholic church.

Pope Francis is also expected to give a speech during the UN Special Summit on Sustainable Development in September regarding climate change.