Vatican City, Feb 26, 2019 / 09:58 am
The redemption of creation takes center stage in Pope Francis' Lenten message this year, which connects man's sinfulness to environmental issues.
"Sin leads man to consider himself the god of creation, to see himself as its absolute master and to use it, not for the purpose willed by the Creator but for his own interests, to the detriment of other creatures," Pope Francis wrote in his Lenten message published Feb. 26.
"Once God's law, the law of love, is forsaken … it leads to the exploitation of creation, both persons and the environment, due to that insatiable covetousness which sees every desire as a right and sooner or later destroys all those in its grip," he said.
The pope's message -- originally written on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi in October -- is a reflection on a line from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans, "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God."