Entering into Season of Care for Creation in September, the Diocese of Hong Kong held the Jubilee Pilgrims of Hope. The theme was “Creation,” reflecting on the relationship between humanity and creation from the perspective of hope. A Mass was celebrated to allow the faithful to experience the beauty of creation amid nature’s splendour.
In his message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on September 1st, Pope Leo XIV noted that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the late Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’, and is a timely opportunity for the Church to deepen its implementation.
In the light of the Jubilee’s perspective of peace and justice, Pope Leo XIV observed: “Nowadays, everywhere there is injustice, violation of international law and the rights of peoples, serious inequality, and greed that fuel these phenomena, giving rise to deforestation, pollution, and the loss of biodiversity” [cf. Laudato Si’, #5]. He continued, “When justice and peace are trampled upon, the poor, the marginalised, and the excluded suffer the most.” Therefore, he invited us to sow the seeds of peace and justice during the Jubilee Year, “thereby promoting peaceful development and renewed hope.”
The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development published the document, 2025 Jubilee: Debt Remission for the Ecological Debt, in June. It pointed out that global economic and social structural inequalities have generated ecological debt, a crisis interwoven with economic and environmental factors. The international community should reflect on the excessive consumption of natural resources by developed nations and alleviate the impact on developing countries. The dicastery called on the Church to promote ecological conversion—spiritually and actively repairing the relationship between humanity and creation.
The Book of Leviticus emphasises that a jubilee year should be a time of rest and restoration, allowing humanity to rebuild its relationship with God and the whole of creation. The jubilee is also a time for debt forgiveness, the return of misplaced land, and letting the land lie fallow: “For six years you may sow your fields…But in the seventh year the land will have a sabbatical rest, a Sabbath for Yahweh…It will be a year of rest for the land” [Leviticus 25:3-5]. The jubilee invites us to be faithful stewards of creation, caring for it rather than continuing to exploit the poor who are burdened by debt to nature.
Pope Leo reminded us in his message that the seeds of justice may take many years to bear their first fruits and require deep cultivation.
In recent years, several parishes have established groups to implement Laudato Si’, sowing the seeds of care for creation through spirituality in nature and environmental action, and nourishing them through formation.
Let us root ourselves in our parishes and, with patience, cultivate love alongside our fellow parishioners, moving toward ecological conversion in hope, and be fully reconciled with nature. SE
