Human beings must change their relationship with nature and view it not as an “object for unscrupulous use and abuse” but as a gift they are charged by God to care for and protect, Pope Francis said.

Between 2007 and the publication of “Laudato Si’” in 2015, Pope Francis “underwent a journey of conversion, of conversion of the ecological problem. Before that I didn’t understand anything.”

Brazil’s ecological offenses have been overshadowed by an arguably graver crisis, according to members of the local church, the government’s disastrous response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In his message for the sixth World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Pope Francis also called for "the cancellation of the debt of the most vulnerable countries."

The “common thread” among the celebrations, especially in 2020, the cardinal said, “is our common home in which the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor are one cry.”

Bolivia’s bishops want environmental concerns to play a key role when voters go to the polls to elect a new government in October.