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Pope Leo XIV asks us to pray “For the care of water”

The Pope’s September prayer intention invites us to view water as God’s gift
and as a right “without borders”

 Vatican City, September 1, 2026. Water, the “source of fruitfulness, freshness, and hope,” as the Pope himself defines it in his prayer, is a scarce, unsafe, and inaccessible resource for millions of people. For this reason, Pope Leo XIV is dedicating his prayer intention for the month of September to the care of water as the Season of Creation begins. Through the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network’s Pray with the Pope campaign, the Holy Father invites the faithful and all people of goodwill to join in his prayer that humanity might learn to safeguard water with gratitude, justice, and responsibility, recognizing it as “a right without borders.”

In his prayer, Leo XIV thanks the “Lord of Life” for the gift of water, a “symbol of your grace and love that renews us through Baptism.” The Pope begs forgiveness that it has been turned “into a commodity,” that we have forgotten “that it is a universal gift, a right without borders.” He also expresses sorrow over “so many brothers and sisters who lack clean water, who walk for miles to find it, who become ill due to its scarcity.” His prayer concludes asking that the Holy Spirit might transform the faithful into “pilgrims of the essential,” capable of living simply, denouncing waste and pollution, and defending the right of every person “to drink without fear and without inequality.”

 Water: a right that continues to be threatened

The Pope’s intention addresses a fact confirmed by international statistics. According to the August 2025 report published by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (WHO/UNICEF) Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene, entitled Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2024 , 2.1 billion people still lack access to safely managed drinking water. For some, access is, for example, intermittent, insufficient, too costly, or too far. In addition, 106 million people depend directly on rivers, lakes, and other untreated surface water. Although access to safely managed drinking water increased from 68 to 74 percent between 2015 and 2024, the same report warns that lower-income countries need to progress seven times more rapidly than they currently are to achieve universal access by 2030.

The lack of safe water goes hand in hand with the lack of sanitation and hygiene. 3.4 billion people lack access to safely managed sanitation; 1.7 billion people lack basic hygiene services at home; and 611 million people have no means to wash their hands, according to statistics reported by WHO/UNICEF (August 2025). In addition, an estimated 1.4 million deaths per year are associated with unsafe water and the lack of hygiene.

“No one should live without water, and no one should die for lack of water”

Reflecting on the meaning of this prayer intention, Father Cristóbal Fones, the international director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, says, “water is one of the great essential elements of life. The dignity of every person and justice between peoples depend on access to it. This prayer intention invites us to think deeply about creation, to safeguard it, and to look with God’s eyes on those who today have to walk for miles to obtain a bit of clean water, and to convert what we see into concrete actions that demonstrate moderation, care, and solidarity. No one should live without water, and no one should die because they lack water.”

A constant concern of Papal teaching

The Pope will inaugurate the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation on September 1. This date also inaugurates the ecumenical Season of Creation, which will conclude on October 4, the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. This year’s theme is “Living Water.”

And so, the theme of the Pope’s message for this Day is: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks” (Is 2:4). Through it, he wishes to emphasize the link between armed conflicts and the deterioration of the environment. It is not the first time his monthly prayer intention has addressed the care of creation. In September 2025, for example, Pope Leo invited us to pray “for our relationship with all of creation,” asking that we encounter God’s presence “in all creation.”

The growing scarcity of fresh water, the pollution of water sources, and the inequality of access to this vital resource are seriously affecting humanity. It is urgent that we learn how to live more simply, more humanely, and more connected to Mother Earth. Pope Francis’s intention in “The Pope Video” released in September 2021 was “for an environmentally sustainable lifestyle,” in which he invited us to adopt a “simpler” and more “sustainable lifestyle.”

A constant concern of Papal teaching

 “Our world has a grave social debt towards the poor who lack access to drinking water, because they are denied the right to a life consistent with their inalienable dignity,” Pope Francis wrote in his Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’. The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network highlights that the Church supports this commitment by advocating for access to drinkable water and sanitation services, promoting projects that make water accessible to people without it in numerous areas, through cleanup campaigns, and educational activities that promote water conservation and hygiene. Its advocacy is focused on rural areas, schools, and the poorest communities, as well as persons who have been deprived of freedom, migrants, the elderly, people with disabilities, or those who live in war zones.

This prayer intention is also an invitation to personal action: taking shorter showers, fixing leaks, turning off faucets not in use, avoiding polluting drains and rivers, consuming water responsibly and moderately, and creating networks with other people and communities committed to safeguarding water.

About the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network

The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network is a Pontifical Work entrusted to the Society of Jesus. It is present in over 92 countries, forming a spiritual community of more than 22 million people who seek to live each day with availability to God’s mission. At the center of its mission are the monthly prayer intentions of the Pope, inviting its members to focus on the pressing challenges facing humanity and the Church’s mission.

It was founded in 1844 as the Apostleship of Prayer. In December 2020, Pope Francis established this Pontifical Work as a Vatican Foundation and approved its final statutes in July 2024.

In collaboration with the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development

The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development was established by the Holy Father Francis with the Apostolic Letter of August 17, 2016, in the form of Motu Proprio, Humanam Progressionem. As of Jan. 1, 2017, the competencies of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, which ceased their mandates on that date, were transferred to the Dicastery.  The Dicastery is thus called to express the Church's solicitude in the areas of justice, peace and the safeguarding of creation, as well as in those involving health and works of charity.