Goa, July 9 -- On June 8 this year, the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Vatican's department that oversees the appropriate celebration of Catholic liturgy, issued the formula for a new votive Mass, the Mass for the Care of Creation.

Those who had been following the pontificate of the late Pope Francis, will know that care for the environment was something close to his heart. He chose the name of a Saint, Francis (of Assisi), who has garnered fame universally, and not just among Catholics, for his love of the natural world - famously addressing the creations of God as brothers and sisters in his Canticle of Creatures.

The then Pope Francis took his concern for the environment further in his second e...