Stories

It is the second consecutive year that Pope Leo has recorded a video for World Mission Sunday, but this year's message carries particular significance: 2026 marks a century since Pope Pius XI established the annual observance in 1926. Since then, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, one of four Pontifical Mission Societies, has been tasked with overseeing the day of missionary awareness and generous giving globally.

The centennial is being celebrated under the theme chosen by Pope Leo, "One in Christ, united in mission."

In the video, the Pope reflects on the original purpose of World Mission Sunday: to foster prayer for the missions, missionary vocations, awareness of the work of The Pontifical Mission Societies, and generous support for young and growing Churches around the world.

He also speaks personally about his own connection to World Mission Sunday, recalling its observance during his childhood in the United States and the support he later experienced during his years as an Augustinian missionary in Peru.

That personal connection is also present in Pope Leo's official message for the 100th World Mission Sunday, in which he thanked The Pontifical Mission Societies for their service to missionary cooperation, something he said he experienced "with gratitude during my ministry in Peru."

The centennial offers an opportunity not only to remember the origins of World Mission Sunday, but also to see the extraordinary growth of the Churches it was created to support.

In 1925, on the eve of the establishment of World Mission Sunday, there were 296 mission jurisdictions, with 627 parishes and approximately 9.6 million Catholics. Today there are 1,131 mission territories, encompassing more than 41,000 parishes and serving more than 346 million Catholics.

The growth can also be seen in the institutions those local Churches now sustain. Mission territories today are home to 124,309 Catholic schools and 26,318 Catholic social institutions, including hospitals, orphanages and nursing homes. Four out of every 10 Catholic baptisms worldwide now take place in mission territories.

Behind those numbers are generations of Catholics who have prayed and sacrificed for people they would probably never meet.

Each year, the offerings collected on World Mission Sunday form the Universal Solidarity Fund administered by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. The funds are distributed on behalf of the Holy Father to mission territories, helping local Churches meet ordinary pastoral needs and supporting the formation of priests and religious, catechesis, churches and chapels, and other works essential to evangelization.

Pope Leo has made that solidarity a central part of his message for the centenary.

"Your prayers and practical support, particularly on World Mission Day, will be a great help in bringing the Gospel of God's love to everyone, especially the poorest and those most in need," he wrote in his message for this year's celebration.

For American Catholics, the centennial also recalls a remarkable reversal in the history of the Church in the United States. For much of the 19th century, the young American Church was itself a recipient of missionary assistance from Catholics abroad through the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Today, Catholics in the United States help extend that same solidarity to young Churches across Africa, Asia, Oceania and parts of Latin America.

One hundred years after the first World Mission Sunday, the geography of the Church has changed dramatically. Its missionary mandate has not.

On Oct. 18, Catholics in every parish are invited once again to pray for missionaries and to give generously to the World Mission Sunday collection—continuing a century-long chain of prayer, sacrifice and solidarity that binds the universal Church together: one in Christ, united in mission.