Dear brothers and sisters of Brazil!

With this day of fasting, penance and prayer, we begin Lent in this Jubilee Year of the Incarnation. On this occasion, I would like to express my closeness to the pilgrim Church in this nation and congratulate my brothers and sisters of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil for their initiative of the Fraternity Campaign, which has been repeated for over sixty years and 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 looked at everything He had made, and found it very good” (cf. Gen 1:31).

With the Fraternity Campaign, the bishops of Brazil invite the entire Brazilian people to follow a path of conversion during Lent, based on the Encyclical Letter Laudato si', which I published almost ten years ago, on 24 May 2015, and which I felt the need to complement with the Apostolic Exhortation Laudate Deum, of 4 October 2023.

In these documents, I wanted 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 also a summons to profound interior conversion” (Laudato si', 217). In this sense, my predecessor of venerable memory, Saint John Paul II, already warned that it was “necessary to stimulate and support the ‘ecological conversion’ which has made humanity more sensitive” (Audience, 17 January 2001) to the theme of caring for our common home.

I therefore commend the efforts of the Bishops’ Conference in once again proposing the theme of ecology as a horizon, together with the desired personal conversion of every believer to Christ. May we all, with the special help of God’s grace in this Jubilee season, change our convictions and practices to let nature rest from our rapacious exploitations.

The theme of this year’s Fraternity Campaign also expresses the willingness of the Church in Brazil to make its contribution so that, during COP 30 next November, which will be held in Belém do Pará, in the heart of the beloved Amazon, nations and international organizations can effectively commit to practices that help overcome the climate crisis and preserve the marvellous work of Creation that God has entrusted to us and that we have a responsibility to pass on to future generations.

I hope that this Lenten journey bears much fruit and fills us all with the Hope of which we are pilgrims during this Jubilee. I hope that the Fraternity Campaign will once again be a powerful aid for the people and communities of this beloved country in their process of conversion to the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ and concrete commitment to Integral Ecology.

Entrusting these wishes to the care of Our Lady of Aparecida, I gladly impart the Apostolic Blessing to all the sons and daughters of the beloved Brazilian nation, especially to those who are committed to caring for our Common Home, and I ask you to continue to pray for me.

Rome, Saint John Lateran, 11 February 2024, liturgical memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes.

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Holy See Press Office Bulletin, 5 March 2025

FRANCIS