World Mission Sunday

On October 18, World Mission Sunday, we join Catholics worldwide in this annual Eucharistic celebration for the missions of the Church. We set aside this day as a time for Catholics around the world to gather, pray, and fundraise for global mission.

World Mission Sunday traces its roots to Blessed Pauline Jaricot, a 19th-century French laywoman who mobilized prayer and support for the Church’s missionary efforts. Her first fundraising circles helped support the Church in the United States — then a mission territory itself — until 1908. Today, U.S. Catholics return that generosity by supporting the missionary work of the Church throughout Africa, Asia, Oceania, Latin America, and parts of Europe and the Middle East.

Please pray and give generously during the second collection in your parish on World Mission Sunday. Your offering of these spiritual and temporal resources will ensure that our brothers and sisters around the world will experience the joy and hope of the encounter of Christ.

Donate to Missions

This year, we joyfully celebrate 100 years since World Mission Sunday was established by Pope Pius XI. This anniversary commemorates a century of prayer, generosity and global mission.

In his message for World Mission Sunday, Pope Leo XIV shares, “It is also worth remembering that, following a proposal from the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, Pius XI established World Mission Day in 1926. The annual offerings collected on this day are distributed by the Society, on behalf of the Pope, to support the various needs of the Church’s mission. The four Societies, therefore, as a whole and each in its own specificity, still play a valuable role for the entire Church. They are a living sign of unity and ecclesial missionary communion. I invite everyone to work with them in a spirit of gratitude.”

How will you unite your heart with Christ and live out your missionary call?

World Mission Sunday Resources

Will you answer the call?

The men and women who serve on mission around the world have answered Christ’s call to go out and make disciples. Will you answer this call and help our brothers and sisters all over the world through your prayers, support, and resources? Your generosity helps support those who are working to bring God’s love and compassion to people living on the margins.

Priests, religious, and lay people from mission groups based in Washington, D.C. serve on mission throughout the world. Countries they are serving in include: Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Haiti, Hong Kong, India, Iraq, Italy, Iceland, Jamaica, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Uruguay, and Vietnam.

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