By NICOLE WINFIELD

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV prayed Wednesday for the world to recognize the urgency of the climate crisis and “hear the cry of the poor,” as he celebrated the first papal Mass using a new set of prayers and readings inspired by Pope Francis’ environmental legacy.

The Mass, in the gardens of the Vatican’s new ecological educational center at the papal summer estate in Castel Gandolfo, indicated a strong line of ecological continuity with Francis, who made environmental protection a hallmark of his pontificate.

Wearing flowing green vestments, Leo presided at the liturgy in front of a statue of the Madonna and at the foot of a reflecting pool, immersed in the lush green gardens on an unusually cool summer day. He said the world needed to change its mindset about the planet and what is causing “the world to burn.”

“We must pray for the conversion of so many people, inside and out of the church, who still don’t recognize the urgency of caring for our common home,” he said. “We see so many natural disasters in the world, nearly every day and in so many countries, that are in part caused by the excesses of being human, with our lifestyle.”

An encyclical inspires a movement

The private Mass was celebrated for about 50 staffers of the Laudato Si center, named for Francis’ 2015 environmental encyclical Praised Be (Laudato Si in Latin), in which the first pope from the Global South blasted the way wealthy countries and multinational corporations had exploited the Earth and its most vulnerable people for profit.

Leo approved the new Mass formula “for the care of creation,” directing it to be added to the list of 49 Masses that have been developed over centuries for a specific need or occasion. Officials said it was crafted in response to requests stemming from Francis’ encyclical, which in its 10 years has inspired a whole church movement and foundation to educate, advocate and sensitize the world to the biblically mandated call to care for nature.

Leo, history’s first American pope, has indicated he intends to further Francis’ ecological legacy.

A longtime missionary in Peru, Leo experienced firsthand the effects of climate change on vulnerable communities and has already spoken out about the need for climate justice for Indigenous peoples, in particular. In a message for the church’s annual day of prayer for creation, Leo blasted the “injustice, violations of international law and the rights of peoples, grave inequalities and the greed that fuels them are spawning deforestation, pollution and the loss of biodiversity.”

He made no equivocations about what or who was to blame, identifying “climate change provoked by human activity.”

A Mass in nature’s cathedral

Leo celebrated the Mass during the first days of his vacation at Castel Gandolfo, a hilltop town overlooking Lake Alban in the cool hills south of Rome. He arrived on Sunday and will spend an initial two weeks there before returning to the Vatican and then heading back in August.

He told those gathered that they were celebrating Mass in “what we might call a natural cathedral,” surrounded by plants, flowers and nature. He said humanity’s mission is the same as Christ’s: to protect creation and bring peace and reconciliation in the world.

“We hear the cry of the earth, we hear the cry of the poor, because this cry has reached the heart of God,” he said. “Our indignation is his, our work is his.”

Archbishop Vittorio Viola, a Vatican official who helped craft the new liturgy formula, said the celebration Wednesday in the gardens was “ideal” given both its natural and symbolic significance.

“The intuition that Pope Francis had was to think about this place as a sort of Laudato Si laboratory, a place that isn’t about a superficial ecology, but provides a theological understanding of creation that then becomes action,” he said.

A carbon-neutral Vatican

In another sign of his environmental commitment, Leo has indicated he plans to execute one of Francis’ most important ecological legacies: The development of a 1063-acre field in northern Rome into a solar farm that would generate enough electricity to meet the Vatican’s needs and thus make Vatican City the world’s first carbon-neutral state.

The development would require an investment of just under 100 million euros (about $117 million), officials say, and needs the approval of the Italian parliament since the territory enjoys extraterritorial status that needs to be extended.

Last year, Francis tasked a commission of Vatican officials with developing the Santa Maria di Galeria site, which was long the source of controversy because of electromagnetic waves emitted by Vatican Radio towers there.

Leo visited the site in June and called it a “wonderful opportunity.” He told RAI state television that the creation of such a farm would set “a very important example: we are all aware of the effects of climate change, and we really need to take care of the whole of creation, as Pope Francis has taught so clearly.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.