Presentation of the Missa pro custodia creationis

On the 10th anniversary of the publication of the encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Leo XIV has promulgated the Decree for the Missa pro custodia creationis (“Mass for the Care of Creation”).

This new formulary of the Roman Missal is included in the Masses pro variis necessitatibus vel ad diversa (“for various needs and occasions”) and has been approved by the Holy Father through the Decretum de formulario et lectionibus adhibendis in Missa pro custodia creationis.

The Missa pro custodia creationis (Mass for the Care of Creation) is a source of joy for the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. Among its various areas of competence, the Dicastery supports local Churches to care for our “common home” and to promote new paths to achieve integral human ecology.

Over the years, Pope Francis supported social pastoral care linked to the care of creation, through his many appeals, beginning with the publication of the Encyclical Laudato Si’.

In his Message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation 2025, Pope Leo XIV wrote: “For ten years, the encyclical Laudato Si’ has accompanied the Catholic Church and many people of goodwill : may it continue to inspire us, and may integral ecology increasingly be chosen and shared as the path to follow. In this way, the seeds of hope will multiply, to be ‘guarded and cultivated’ through the grace of our great and unfailing Hope, the Risen Christ.”

The decree of the Missa pro custodia creationis (Mass for the Care of Creation) was published in Latin. The Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has provided some “working translations” for the Episcopal Conferences, which are responsible for providing the translation appropriate to their area. The proposed translations are “intended simply as an aid to facilitate the work of translation, with a view to possible use on the next World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (1 September 2025).”

The press conference to present the Missa pro custodia creationis (Mass for the Care of Creation) took place on 3 July 2025, with the participation of Cardinal Michael Czerny SJ, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DPIHD), and Mons. Vittorio Francesco Viola, OFM, Secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

During the presentation, Cardinal Czerny stated that the Mass for the Care of Creation (Missa pro custodia creationis) “is a source of joy” because it responds “to the many requests received from around the world (...). It renews our gratitude, strengthens our faith, and calls us to respond with care and love, in an ever-growing sense of wonder, respect, and responsibility.”

The Prefect of the DPIHD added that the Mass for the Care of Creation “calls us to be faithful stewards of what God has entrusted to us—in our daily choices and in public policy, as well as in prayer, worship, and the way we live in the world.”

Pope Leo XIV will use the new Mass formula for the care of Creation on July 9, 2025, in a private Eucharist he will celebrate at Borgo Laudato Si during his vacation in Castel Gandolfo.