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October 7, 2021By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
Francesca Zicaro pointed excitedly to a picture on a poster at church – her drawing was one of those chosen to help illustrate ways to protect the earth. She suggested planting flowers, which she loves doing.
The 7 1/2-year-old from All Saints Academy in Webster was among an estimated 1,500 young people from 13 Catholic schools and three parishes who participated in some way in the Mass for Creation Friday at St. John Church in Worcester.
More than a dozen students were among the 60-plus worshippers. Hundreds more students sent in prayers and drawings, which were carried in the offertory procession, said Madeline Colón-Usowicz. She’s a member of the diocese’s Environmental Stewardship Ministry, which organized the Mass, where prayers were offered in several languages and Bishop McManus blessed evergreen seedlings for worshippers to take home and plant.
Bishop McManus said in his homily that the intent of Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’” is for us to ask, “What have we done with the gift of creation which God has given us?”
The developed world has created a mess, and the vulnerable suffer, the bishop said.
He recalled flying over the Dominican Republic – lush with green forests – to Haiti, where he saw deforested brown land. He lamented how people rob the land of its beauty and its ability to provide for them, which increases suffering when hurricanes strike.
He concluded with words of the United States bishops, that global climate change, at its core, is not about economic theory or political platforms, but about the future of creation and the human family.
“What kind of world do we want to leave to our children?” he asked. “This is the question we must all take to prayer.”
