Special to The Message
Mission belongs to the entire Church. Every baptized person is called to share God’s love through prayer, generosity and witness. Inspired by the dedication of missionaries around the world, we continue working together so that the message of Christ may reach every community, especially those most in need.
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World Mission Sunday was established by Pope Pius XI in 1926. This year, it will take place on Sunday, Oct. 18, and it will focus on the theme, “One in Christ, united in mission.” It is a time for us to prayerfully and financially support work in the Mission Field.
100 years ago, the Church began this global mission of solidarity. Today, that mission continues through you. For a century, Catholics around the world have united on World Mission Sunday to pray for the Church’s missionary work in the poorest and most remote corners of the world.
This year, World Mission Sunday marks 100 years of solidarity across the globe. It is not about specific people or places. Rather, it is about taking a moment out of our busy lives to look outward and think of others, claiming a share of responsibility for the care of our brothers and sisters across the globe.
The collection helps priests in the missions carry out their work to spread the Gospel, like Father and later Bishop Robert Prevost, OSA, in Peru.
“I would like to thank the Pontifical Mission Societies for their service to missionary cooperation, which I experienced with gratitude during my ministry in Peru,” Pope Leo XIV said in a video message earlier this year.
World Mission Sunday donations are collected through the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith, and the funds are distributed universally based on equity and need. Blessed Fulton J. Sheen, whose Sept. 24 beatification Mass was celebrated at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, served as the national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith from 1950 to 1966.
This year, as we celebrate 100 years of World Mission Sunday and honor the missionary legacy of Blessed Archbishop Sheen, Catholics are encouraged to pray the World Mission Rosary together each day of October.
Funds raised on World Mission Sunday help sustain over 1,000 young dioceses, primarily in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific Islands. The United States alone has roughly 70 dioceses that are considered mission dioceses. Resources gathered on World Mission Sunday directly fund the training of seminarians and catechists, the construction of schools and clinics, and the operation of vital social ministries. In areas ravaged by poverty, conflict or climate crises, this assistance ensures that local churches can remain resilient beacons of hope.
Each of us is called to live in this world; to be a part of this world; to make a difference in this world. World Mission Sunday is a wonderful opportunity to reach out in prayer and gift to those in need.
For more information on World Mission Sunday, visit https://pro.tpms.cloud.sitefinity.com/wms-2026.