Stories

In 1926, Pope Pius XI established World Mission Sunday so Catholics everywhere could pray and sacrifice together for the Church’s missionary work. Statistics from the Vatican yearbook from a century ago and the latest available year reveal 100 years of extraordinary growth in the local Churches served by this worldwide day of prayer and giving.

• There are 1,131 ecclesiastical jurisdictions considered mission territories. Having received the faith from missionaries, these are newly established or young Churches that lack the resources to sustain themselves. For this reason, they depend on the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization.

• They cover virtually all of Africa (533), Asia—except for most of the Philippines—(482), and Oceania—except for Australia—(46). In the Americas, there are 70, most of which are apostolic vicariates in the Amazon Basin region.

• There are mission territories in 138 countries. Among them, the countries with the most are India (132), Nigeria (59), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (48).

• Two-thirds of the world’s population lives in these territories. However, only 26% of the world’s Catholics are in mission territories.

• They make up one-third of the dioceses of the universal Church.

• Four out of every ten baptisms in the Catholic Church take place in mission territories.

• Close to half of the world’s future priests are currently seminarians in mission territories.

• The face of the universal Catholic Church is changing. In 1978, 7 out of every 100 Catholics worldwide were African. Today that figure has tripled: there are 22 African Catholics every 100.

• More than half of the Catholic Church’s schools, and 26% of its social institutions—hospitals, orphanages, nursing homes, etc.—are in mission territories. The Church supports 124,309 schools and 26,318 social institutions in mission territories.