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Pope Francis’ message for the Fraternity Campaign 2025 of the Church in Brazil
“Fraternity and Integral Ecology”
Theme: “Fraternity and Integral Ecology”
Scriptural Motto: “God saw that everything was very good” (Genesis 1:31).
Dear brothers and sisters of Brazil:
With this day of fasting, penance and prayer, we begin the Lent of the Jubilee of the Incarnation.
On this occasion, I wish to express my closeness to the pilgrim Church in this nation and to congratulate my brothers and sisters of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil for the initiative of the Fraternity Campaign, which has been repeated for more than 60 years and which this year has as its theme “Fraternity and Integral Ecology” and as its motto the passage of Scripture in which, contemplating the work of creation, “God saw that everything was very good” (cf. Gen 1:31).
With the Fraternity Campaign, the Bishops of Brazil invite all the Brazilian people to follow, during Lent, a path of conversion based on the Encyclical Letter “Laudato si’, which I published almost 10 years ago, on May 24, 2015, and which I felt the need to complete with the Apostolic Exhortation ‘Laudato Deum’, of October 4, 2023.
In these documents, I wished to draw the attention of all humanity to the urgency of a necessary change of attitude in our relations with the environment, recalling that the current “ecological crisis is a call to a profound interior conversion” (Laudato Si’, n. 217).
In this regard, my predecessor, of venerable memory, Saint John Paul II, already warned that “it is necessary […] to stimulate and sustain the ‘ecological conversion’ which […] has made humanity more sensitive” (General Audience, 17 January 2001) to the theme of caring for our Common Home.
For this reason, I praise the efforts of the Episcopal Conference in proposing once again as a horizon the theme of ecology, together with the desired personal conversion of each faithful to Christ.
May we all, with the special help of God’s grace in this Jubilee season, change our convictions and our practices to let nature rest from our eager explorations.
The theme of this year’s Fraternity Campaign also expresses the readiness of the Church in Brazil to contribute so that, during The 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 30) next November, to be held in Belém do Pará, Brazil in the heart of the beloved Amazon, nations and international organizations can effectively commit themselves to practices that help to overcome the climate crisis and preserve the marvelous work of Creation. that God has entrusted to us and that we have the responsibility to pass on to future generations.
I hope that this Lenten journey will bear much fruit and fill us all with hope, of which we are pilgrims in this Jubilee.
I pray that the Campaign of the Fraternity may once again be a powerful help for the people and communities of this beloved country in their process of conversion to the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of concrete commitment to Integral Ecology.
Entrusting these wishes to the care of Our Lady of Aparecida, I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing to all the sons and daughters of the beloved Brazilian nation, in particular to those who are committed to caring for our Common Home, asking them to continue to pray for me.
Pope Francis – Rome, St. John Lateran, February 11, 2025, liturgical memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes.
