The first day for the protection and defence of Creation, which has been established to fall on this 1st September by the Italian Bishops during the Permanent Council of CEI last January, will be celebrated nationwide on Sunday 3rd September at the Abbey of Vallombrosa, by the State’s Corps of Forest Rangers and the Benedictine Congregation of Vallombrosa. Vallombrosa has been chosen because it is connected with the figure of Saint Giovanni Gualberto, the founder of the Benedictine monastic order of the Reform of Vallombrosa and the patron saint of the State’s Corps of Forest Rangers. The National Day for the Protection of Creation has been established in agreement with the other European church communities in order to reassert the importance, partly by faith, of the ecological issue with all its ethical and social implications. On Sunday 27th August, the Pope recalled this event of the Italian Church of September 1st highlighting how Creation is a “great gift of God, exposed to serious risks by life choices that might deteriorate it”. “The deterioration of the environment commented Benedict XVI makes life unsustainable, especially for the poor of the earth. Through a dialogue with the Christians of the different confessions, we must commit ourselves to take care of Creation without squandering its resources and sharing them with solidarity”. In other words, this means connecting the ecology of the environment with the one John Paul II called “human ecology”.
