Stories

In 2025, The Pontifical Mission Societies USA allocated more than $30 million in subsidies to support the Church's missionary work around the world. Our new Gratitude Report tells the story of the extraordinary generosity of U.S. Catholics—and the people and communities their prayers and sacrifices help sustain.

By Ines San Martin

Every gift tells a story.

In 2025, Catholics across the United States once again answered Christ's Great Commission to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19–20) through their prayers, sacrifices, and generosity. Through The Pontifical Mission Societies USA, more than $30.1 million in subsidies was allocated to help proclaim the Gospel and strengthen the Church in mission territories around the world.

Through three of the four Pontifical Mission Societies, that included:

• $26.6 million through the Society for the Propagation of the Faith 

• $2.8 million through the Society of St. Peter Apostle 

• $751,000 through the Missionary Childhood Association 

The 2026 Gratitude Report of The Pontifical Mission Societies USA tells the story behind those numbers—and celebrates the Catholics whose generosity makes this missionary work possible.

Those gifts from the United States become part of a worldwide network of prayer and missionary solidarity connecting Catholics across continents. Together with Catholics around the world, they help sustain mission dioceses, build and repair churches and chapels, accompany children, form catechists, and support 87,977 seminarians in 804 seminaries.

But this Gratitude Report is not simply an accounting of dollars given and distributed. It is the story of one Church, united in mission.

Travel through its pages to Zambia, where an annual ordinary subsidy helps keep the vast Archdiocese of Kasama functioning and priests traveling to 978 prayer centers. Meet children whose lives are being transformed through the Missionary Childhood Association and seminarians preparing to give their lives in service to Christ. Hear from diocesan mission directors across the United States who help connect our parishes with the universal Church.

This year's report also looks toward an extraordinary moment in the Church's missionary history. In 2026, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of World Mission Sunday, under the theme chosen by Pope Leo XIV: "One in Christ, united in mission." And on September 24, the Church will celebrate the beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, who served for 16 years as National Director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in the United States and tirelessly awakened American Catholics to their missionary responsibility.

We also pause to remember the 17 missionaries and pastoral workers killed in 2025 while serving Christ and his people.

As Pope Leo XIV reminds us in his message for the centennial World Mission Sunday, "Every gift, no matter how small, becomes a meaningful act of missionary communion."

READ THE 2026 GRATITUDE REPORT

For generations, Catholics have prayed for one another and sacrificed for one another across borders and oceans. The Church in the United States was once among the beneficiaries of that extraordinary missionary generosity. Today, we have the privilege of extending it to others.

Thank you for your prayers, your sacrifices, and your generosity. Thank you for being one in Christ, united in mission.