 At the present time, we are in a crisis. The effects of climate change are impacting negatively or disproportionately the poor and marginalized of the world that are less able to mitigate or adapt to climate change. In the people in cyclical, the Dottlesey, Pope Francis reminds us that the gifts of creation are meant for all. But we are entrenched in a model of development that is exploitive of nature and affects the poor in a detrimental way. He's calling us to an ecological conversion and asks us to acknowledge ecological debt and then to change course to live sustainably, to consider our impacts when we make our choices in our decisions, especially as they will affect future generations. Climate change is a spiritually and morally urgent matter for us because it involves all the peoples of the Earth. It has to do with the Earth as the homeland for every human being. And so whether we are peoples of faith or no faith, we are all involved in the same task, the same calling, let us to say for the maintaining and the upbuilding of the place in which we live. Often we've heard the expression that creation is the handiwork of God. And then we are cooperators, our co-workers with God in achieving what God wills for this Earth. It's regarded by us really as a gift of God. And so we must treat the gift as we would treat any gift, treat it with respect, treat it in the sense that we would want it to achieve its purpose and end. Well, Francis tells us that the life of the spirit is not dissociated from the body or from nature, that we are at one with nature. We are at one as human beings with the world around us. And therefore, to attain our own purpose in life, our own purpose as spiritual beings, we need to involve all that is given to us in the world about us. We are in fact in communion with all that surrounds us, Pope Francis says. And so when we think about the crisis, this climate change as crisis, it's really important to note that it goes at the very core of our definition as human beings. It goes at the core of our relationship to one another and our relationship to the Earth. And so it's not a matter of being a hobby, it really is a matter that points to the very center, very center of our existence as human beings and our task to maintain what has been given to us, our homeland that is the Earth. And so we're invited then to join with God in this task of maintaining God's handiwork, this Earth in which we live. One of the things that Pope Francis referred, one of the people rather that Pope Francis referred to was St. Francis of Assisi. And he's sort of the saint of all ecologists. He's the saint of the environment. And he attained that title simply because of the simplicity of his life, his respect for all created things all around him. He often called these things brother. He sang to them, he sang about them. He was a poet and a mystic who was really raised up in his spirit by the beauty of all that surrounded him. In fact, one of the things that he had said, that we need to look at creation as a book, in which we get a glimpse of God's beauty and goodness. So when one sees it in the eyes of the mystic Francis, it sees the Earth and its beauty in the eyes of a mystic like Francis, our thoughts are turned toward what we need to do, all the things that we need to do in the best way that we can to maintain this place in which we live, this gift that we have been given, this homeland that is the Earth for all of us. On this Earth Day, we grieve the destruction of the biosphere of air, soil and water. We also grieve the displacement of people due to loss of the arable land, environmental migration of environmental refugees. We grieve the extinction of species. Pope Francis reminds us that creatures have their own value and purpose and give glory to God by their very existence. We have no right to push them to the brink of extinction. We commit to taking action on climate change, most importantly, to assess our own use of energy and to ask our governments to take the appropriate steps, to bring emissions to safe levels and to protect the environment. On this Earth Day, we grieve the loans inflicted by humankind's inability to recognize the calling they received as custodians of all that God's given. We have begun, just only begun, to recognize our responsibility, but we have got such a long way to go. Secondly, we grieve the exploitation of the resources so generously offered by Mother Earth and for those many brothers and sisters who suffer and are in need due to waste and abuse on the part of individuals and nations. We also grieve the lack of awareness of those involved in political life that any behavior that does not respect the environment damages human coexistence and undermines the foundations of peace. Specifically, we grieve over the overuse of transportation without sufficient attention to its consequences to the environment. We grieve over our hyperconsumption of food and energy, particularly in First World nations. We grieve over the use of soaps and plastics and synthetic clothes that overlook the unseen microbeads that run into our streams and oceans now reciting in fish and probably in some of us as well. And we grieve over our junk, the piles of what we throw away. We grieve over our focus on buying because we can rather than asking what we really need and what the world needs. We hope that Pope Francis' conviction that tells modern people that the creator does not abandon us, does not forsake his loving plan or repent of creating us, that he is still with us in that plan and that humanity still has the ability to work together in building and rebuilding our common home. To paraphrase Pope Francis, it's not too late. For the love of all creation.