The Thouret School Network’s commitment to our Common Home: the Season of Creation began on Monday 1 September with the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. It will end five weeks later, on Saturday 4 October, on the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, patron saint of “ecology”.

During this period, schools and educational institutions are invited to reflect, pray and act together for the protection of our common home.

The theme chosen for this year is “Seeds of Peace and Hope”. Environmental justice is an urgent necessity that goes beyond protecting the environment: it is a matter of social, economic and cultural justice.

In his message, Pope Leo XIV forcefully reminds us that ‘our world is burning because of global warming and conflicts’ and notes with bitterness that there is still no awareness that the destruction of nature does not affect everyone in the same way: ‘trampling on justice and peace means hitting the poorest, the marginalised and the excluded the hardest’.

Our Thouret School Network welcomes the Holy Father’s invitation to move from words to deeds and to raise awareness among young people about climate challenges:

“Living our vocation as protectors of God’s handiwork is an essential part of a virtuous existence; it is not an optional or secondary aspect of Christian experience. By working with dedication and tenderness, many seeds of justice can be sown, thus contributing to peace and hope. Sometimes it takes years for the tree to bear its first fruits, years that involve an entire ecosystem in continuity, fidelity, collaboration and love, especially if this love becomes a mirror of God’s self-sacrificing love.”

Every institution, school, reception centre or student residence is committed to taking concrete steps to live an integral ecology and to pray for peace and for the Earth, asking her forgiveness for the pollution, destruction and massive exploitation of her resources.

Let us act today, for fraternity and solidarity pass through climate justice, which is a requirement and a manifestation of our faith and our hope.