The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments present at the Holy See Press Office, a new formulary of the Roman Missal dedicated to the “Care for Creation”.

By Isabella H. de Carvalho

On July 9, 2025, Pope Leo XIV will celebrate the first “Mass for the Care of Creation”, with a new formulary of the Roman Missal, produced by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and presented Thursday, July 3, during a press conference at the Vatican. The Pope will celebrate this private Mass during his holiday with the staff of the “Borgo Laudato Sì” (“Laudato Sì Village”), an educational center located in the Papal residence in Castel Gandolfo.

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”, Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development said during the press conference. 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”.

The press conference to present the new formulary

A way to promote an integral ecology

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”.

“’The Mass for the Care for Creation’ takes up some of the main positions contained in Laudato Si’ and expresses them in the form of a prayer within the theological framework that the encyclical revives”, Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, explained during the press conference. The texts that make up the formulary for this Mass “are a good antidote” against reading Laudato Si’ as concerned with a “false or superficial ecology”, which is “far removed from that ‘integral ecology’ amply described and promoted in the encyclical”. In fact, he described Francis’ encyclical as an “eco-social” text, rather than just “ecological”.

Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola

Remembering those affected by climate change

“Creation is not an added theme but is always already present in the Catholic liturgy”, as the Eucharist “joins heaven and earth, it embraces and penetrates all creation” and in it “we bless God for the bread and wine we receive”, Cardinal Czerny said. This Mass can now “increase our gratitude” and also “invites us to respond with care and love” to the issues of today.

Quoting Pope Leo XIV’s message for this year’s World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, released on July 2, the Cardinal additionally highlighted that “in a world where the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters are the first to suffer the devastating effects of climate change, deforestation and pollution, care for creation becomes an expression of our faith and humanity”. He insisted, citing Laudato Si’, that “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor are one and the danger of a superficial ecology” is to believe that the only “problems to be solved are ecological ones” and that this can be done “at the expense of the people”.

Cardinal Michael Czerny

The readings and prayers featured in the Mass

Archbishop Viola emphasized that the readings featured in this Mass are “very rich and offer several insights”. From the Old Testament, for example, a reading from the Book of Wisdom (13,1-9) is included, which highlights the importance of seeing God through his creation. For the Responsorial Psalm, certain verses are listed from Psalm 18, which highlights how “the heavens declare the glory of God”, and Psalm 103, which states “Bless the Lord, all his creatures”. For the New Testament, a reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians (1,15-20) was selected that affirms that Christ “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth”. Lastly, two passages from the Gospel of Matthew are suggested. In the first (6,24-34) Christ invites to “look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, yet “your heavenly Father feeds them”. The second (8,23-27) features the moment when Jesus calms a storm while on a boat with his disciples. The prayers in the Mass also reflect the importance of caring for creation, for example by stating “while we wait for new heavens and a new earth, let us learn to live in harmony with all creatures”.

Clarifications regarding “Traditionis custodes”

Finally, responding to a question about the publication of some press articles related to Pope Francis’s 2021 Motu Proprio, Traditionis custodes, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, noted that the published texts contribute to “a very partial and incomplete reconstruction.” In fact, a consultation is cited to which, however, “further documentation and other confidential reports — also the result of additional consultations — were subsequently added and submitted to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Catholic priests will now be able to celebrate Mass “for the care of creation” after the Vatican announced that a new formulary of prayers and biblical readings for the Mass will be added to the Roman Missal — the liturgical book that contains the texts for celebrating Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church.

The new formulary, or specific set of texts and prayers for Mass, will be added among the “civil needs” section of the “Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions” listed in the Roman Missal. The current missal, approved by St. John Paul II in 2000, lists 17 “civil needs” to offer Masses and prayers for, including “for the nation or state,” “after the harvest,” “for refugees and exiles” and “in time of earthquake.” The missal lists another 20 particular needs for the church and 12 for other circumstances.

Pope Leo XIV will use the new formulary for a private Mass July 9 with the staff of Borgo Laudato Si’ ecology project — a space for education and training in integral ecology hosted in the gardens of the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo, the traditional summer residence for the popes.

One of the gardens of the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, is seen May 29, 2025, the day Pope Leo XIV made a visit to the villa and the “Borgo Laudato Si'” project, which Pope Francis set up to promote ecology education. (CNS photo/Pablo Esparza)

The formulary for the Mass began development during Pope Francis’ pontificate in response to “requests for a liturgical way of celebrating the meaning and the message of ‘Laudato si’,'” said Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, who presented the new formulary at a news conference July 3.

“The true authors of this text are Scripture, the (church) fathers and ‘Laudato si’,'” said Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

The new formulary, Archbishop Viola said, “receives some of the principal themes contained in Laudato Si’ and expresses them in the form of prayer within the theological framework that the encyclical revives.”

He described the set of prayers as “a good antidote against a certain reading of ‘Laudato si” that risks reducing the depth of its content to a ‘superficial or ostensible ecology'” that is “far from that integral ecology widely described and explained in the encyclical.”

Lake Albano is seen from Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, May 29, 2025, the day Pope Leo XIV visited the papal properties in the town. (CNS photo/Pablo Esparza)

The Mass formulary begins with the entrance antiphon from Psalm 19: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims works of his hands.” The Collect prayer, which gathers the prayer intentions of the faithful to close the introductory rites of the Mass, asks God “that docile to the life-giving breath of your Spirit, we may lovingly care for the work of your hands.”

The prayer after Communion asks for increased communion with God “so that, as we await the new heavens and the new earth, we may learn to live in harmony with all creatures.”

The proposed biblical readings include Wisdom 13:1-9, Colossians 1:15-20, and selections from the Gospel of Matthew that recount Jesus calming the storm and calling people to trust in divine providence through the lilies of the field and the birds of the air.

In the decree dated June 8 issuing the new formulary, Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, wrote, “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.”

“This is why it is considered appropriate to add a Mass formulary” on the care of creation, he wrote.

However, “this Mass is a reason for joy,” said Cardinal Czerny during the July 3 news conference. “It increases our gratitude, strengthens our faith and invites us to respond with care and love in an ever-growing sense of wonder, reverence and responsibility.”

The new formulary “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,” he added.

Vatican City, Jul 3, 2025 / 12:18 pm

The Vatican on Thursday presented new Mass prayers and biblical readings to be used to support the Church’s appreciation for God’s creation.

The “Mass for the Care of Creation,” inspired by Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical Laudato Si’, has prayers and Mass readings designed “to ask God for the ability to care for creation,” Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, said at a July 3 presentation.

“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. Such service is indeed a great act of faith, hope, and charity,” the cardinal added.

The “Mass for the Care of Creation” is part of the Catholic Church’s Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions. It can be celebrated on a weekday when other liturgical celebrations do not take precedence.

The Vatican published the “formulary” of the Mass, which includes options for biblical readings and the formulas of prayers recited by the priest: the entrance antiphon, collect, prayer over the offerings, Communion antiphon, and prayer after Communion.

Czerny said Pope Leo XIV will celebrate a private Mass using the new prayer formulas in Castel Gandolfo on July 9. The Mass will be for employees of the Borgo Laudato Si’ initiative, which aims to put into practice the principles for integral development outlined in Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’.

The formulary of the “Mass of Care for Creation” is part of a group of Masses that can be said for various civil needs, such as for the country, for the blessing of human labor, for planting and for harvest time, in time of war, and after a natural disaster.

According to Bishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, OFM, secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, bishops’ conferences can indicate a day for the Mass to be celebrated if they wish.

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Viola also noted that “the theme of creation is already present in the liturgy,” but the Mass for the Care of Creation helps emphasize what Pope Francis wrote in paragraph 66 of Laudato Si’, that “human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbor, and with the earth itself.”

The Vatican’s liturgy dicastery was responsible for the new Mass formulary, requested by Francis and approved by Leo, but Czerny said the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity were also happy to collaborate on the project.

“Sacred Scripture exhorts humankind to contemplate the mystery of creation and to give endless thanks to the Holy Trinity for this sign of his benevolence, which, like a precious treasure, is to be loved, cherished, and simultaneously advanced as well as handed down from generation to generation,” the divine worship dicastery’s decree 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,” it continues. “This is why it is considered appropriate to add a Mass formulary ‘pro custodia creationis’” to the Roman Missal.

Though its near clandestine dismantling by Elon Musk occurred months ago, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s 64-year institutional life officially concluded on July 1, when its remnant operations were turned over to the Department of State. In February, more than 80 percent of the contracts administered by U.S.A.I.D. were canceled by the Trump administration. That meant the end of thousands of hunger-relief, health care and peace- and democracy-building efforts in more than 130 countries.

Bill O’Keeke is Catholic Relief Services’ executive vice president for mission and mobilization. He reports that C.R.S. terminated over 90 programs and laid off more than 3,000 staff members in the wake of the demolition of U.S.A.I.D. “And our church partners have also really taken a very serious, serious hit because of the depth of these cuts.”

Looking ahead, he says, if the State Department is indeed going to assume humanitarian obligations once shouldered by U.S.A.I.D., “there needs to be adequate technical, managerial and accountable capacity to manage high-quality programs that the American people can be proud of…and there also needs to be adequate funding.”

Unfortunately, at this moment, there is little sign of that happening. In fact, Congress and the Trump administration are already backtracking on commitments made in March to humanitarian spending for 2025. “They’re killing the future by rescinding the money they just approved,” he said.

“Killing the future” turns out to be a painfully apt phrase. The formal termination of U.S.A.I.D. this week has been accompanied by the release of a grim assessment of the likely impact of that sudden shift in U.S. humanitarian commitments. The analysis, published in the venerable U.K. medical journal The Lancet, warns that the end of U.S.A.I.D. will result in the loss of a “staggering” 14 million lives by 2030, including the deaths of 4.5 million children under age 5.

The report’s authors, medical researchers from the United States, Spain, Brazil and Mozambique, conclude: “Current and proposed US aid cuts…threaten to abruptly halt and reverse one of the most important periods of progress in human development.” They say “the resulting shock” from the loss of U.S. assistance “would be similar in scale to a global pandemic or a major armed conflict. Unlike those events, however, this crisis would stem from a conscious and avoidable policy choice—one whose burden would fall disproportionately on children and younger populations, and whose consequences could reverberate for decades.”

According to the report, over the course of the last two decades, U.S.A.I.D. programs saved almost 92 million lives, including the lives of 30 million children under 5. The study found that higher levels of U.S.A.I.D. funding for programs in low- to middle-income nations, particularly in Africa, were associated with a 15 percent reduction in all causes of mortality across all age groups and a 32 percent reduction in under-5 mortality.

U.S.A.I.D. funding was associated with a 65 percent reduction in mortality from H.I.V./AIDS, preventing 26 million deaths; a 51 percent reduction in deaths from malaria, representing eight million lives; and a 50 percent reduction in mortality from neglected tropical diseases, saving about nine million lives.

The researchers add: “Significant decreases were also observed in mortality from tuberculosis, nutritional deficiencies, diarrhoeal diseases, lower respiratory infections, and maternal and perinatal conditions.”

Those who cheered the agency’s institutional dismemberment seemed not to notice that global impact, highlighting instead alleged fraud or malfeasance in the awarding of programmatic grants. But so far, Mr. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and the Trump administration have managed to produce little evidence of either problem, just programs they did not like for one ideological reason or another. And purported cost-saving of billions has likewise not materialized.

In fact, shutting down the agency without a plan to replace it has resulted in the abandonment and spoilage of significant food and medical reserves and an additional $6 billion in costs, according to an internal memo delivered on June 3 to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, viewed by Bloomberg Government.

A recent report from The New York Times tracked the chaotic demise of U.S.A.I.D. after it had proved an easy demonstration target for DOGE. The incoming administration just about stumbled into the agency’s deconstruction, responding to the juvenile pique of Mr. Musk, who joked about feeding U.S.A.I.D. “into the wood chipper.” In the end, there had been no attention to the practical and completely predictable consequences of the sudden termination of U.S.-funded humanitarian programs.

The agency has always been a favorite target of alleged budget hawks, but its comparably tiny budget—in a given year typically less than 1 percent of total U.S. spending and only about half of that devoted strictly to development or humanitarian assistance—means that even the complete shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. has had a negligible impact on America’s fiscal imbalances.

What the agency represented, however, was a small, wise investment in peacemaking and in mitigating grave human suffering and deprivation.

Prior to the DOGE rampage, the United States had been the world’s largest single donor to humanitarian assistance, funding programs to combat hunger and premature deaths because of preventable or treatable illness, offering lifelines and stability to fragile nations around the world. U.S.A.I.D. had been the primary agent of so-called soft power, the use of nonmilitary force that acts as an expression of national goodwill. With the United States removed from that arena, critics of the Trump administration’s improvisational approach to diplomacy and international assistance warn that China will quickly step in.

Catholic Relief Services had been the largest faith-based subcontractor for U.S.A.I.D. Over decades its work in scores of developing nations has been partly or fully funded by the U.S. agency. The abrupt contract terminations led to substantial reductions in C.R.S. programs around the world that affected more than 20 million people.

In a statement released in March, C.R.S., like other agencies that had worked with U.S.A.I.D, reported that the sudden halt to government payments meant “food in warehouses could not be distributed to the hungry and women and children could not get vital health and nutrition services.”

“These programs do more than save lives,” C.R.S. said. “They help lift communities and countries out of poverty. They support local faith-based and church partners that provide services and stability to their communities and to their countries.”

“By ending these life-saving programs, our government is not only neglecting our nation’s responsibility, but also weakening the very foundations of peace, stability and prosperity,” C.R.S. said. “We urge the administration to reverse these terminations and issue prompt payments to continue this life-saving and life-giving assistance.” And in that urging there lies a degree of hope as we consider this week the implications of the report from The Lancet. The avoidable deaths that its researchers project are just that: projections of what may come unless there is a course correction from the United States and the Trump administration.

The administration may have hoped to secure its “America first” and fiscal-responsibility bona fides when it began the institutional purge of U.S.A.I.D. on Jan. 20. Can it acknowledge now that it was never the plan or the intention to risk so many lives among the world’s most vulnerable populations—people enduring conflict and climate change deprivations in Sudan and Honduras, people confronting poverty and disease in South Africa and Uganda?

Is it permissible now to get on with the work, long supported by the general public, of investing a small portion of the wealth of this great nation into the preservation of lives and communities around the world?

After these last calamitous weeks, it is not too late to come up with mitigating responses. “The question is: What is in the pipeline for the future?” Mr. O’Keefe asks. “How are we going to meet the needs of the coming hurricane season? What happens if there’s a tsunami or an earthquake, and what happens if the conflicts that we all hope will end don’t?”

Those crises, he says, represent “huge human need.”

“And while we all want other governments to do more, the United States, as the richest, most powerful country, has a moral responsibility in Catholic teaching to step up.” He worries instead, “it’s stepping back.”

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Pope Leo XIV celebrates the Mass on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles in St Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 29, 2025. REUTERS/Remo Casilli/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

VATICAN CITY, July 3 (Reuters) – A new rite published by the Vatican on Thursday will allow priests to celebrate a Mass to exhort Catholics to exercise care for the Earth, in the latest push by the 1.4-billion-member global Church to address global climate change.

For centuries, Catholic priests have been able to celebrate special Masses to pray for their country, give thanks after a harvest or ask God to end a natural disaster.

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The new “Mass for the care of creation,” prepared by two Vatican offices, allows priests to pray that Catholics will “lovingly care” for creation and “learn to live in harmony with all creatures”.

“This Mass … 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,” said Cardinal Michael Czerny, presenting the rite at a Vatican press conference on Thursday.

Catholic priests have the possibility of offering Masses for a range of special needs. The new rite, approved by Pope Leo, is the 50th option offered by the Vatican.

The late Pope Francis was a firm proponent of care for creation. He was the first pope to embrace the scientific consensus about climate change and urged nations to reduce their carbon emissions in line with the 2015 Paris climate accord

“Pope Leo clearly will carry this pastoral and civil concern forward,” Rev. Bruce Morrill, a Jesuit priest and expert on Catholic liturgy at Vanderbilt University in the U.S., told Reuters.

“This new thematic Mass indicates the Church’s recognition of the serious threats human-caused climate change is now fully realising,” he said.

The new Vatican rite comes two days after Catholic bishops from Asia, Africa and Latin America called on global governments to do more to address climate change, publishing a joint appeal that was the first of its kind.

Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Editing by Saad Sayeed

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