Connecting with a world in need . . .
Your prayers and generous support on World Mission Sunday (Oct. 22-23), through the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, directly benefit the mission church in its service to the world’s most vulnerable communities. Please give to the World Mission Sunday collection, which touches 1,111 mission dioceses.
What happens to your World Mission Sunday donation?
Ever wonder what happens when you place $10 ($5 or $20 or more) into your special collection envelope for World Mission Sunday?
First, after you place your envelope in the collection basket, your pastor sends your offering to your diocesan office of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, one of four pontifical mission societies. Then, your pastor jots down your name and address and sends this information along to the diocesan mission office as well, so that you can receive a free subscription to MISSION magazine, published four times annually.
The director of your diocesan mission office then sends your donation to the pontifical mission societies’ national office in New York City.
Each spring, the pontifical mission societies’ national directors travel to Rome to meet with other national directors from around the world. At this meeting, the national directors are presented with a list of the projects and programs in the missions that need support from the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. The directors look carefully at each of these requests for help and then vote to decide what projects are most in need of assistance so that the good news of Jesus — and his love and peace — may reach all peoples, in all nations. Once these allocations are decided, funds are distributed directly to the missions from each national office.
Your World Mission Sunday gift may be used to buy Bibles for catechists in Sierra Leone, or provide for a small parish in India. Your offering may be used to help Sisters in Sudan lovingly care for orphans in Jesus’ name, or it may buy a bicycle for a priest in Thailand so that he can travel from village to village to celebrate Mass. Most importantly, wherever your offering is sent, it brings with it the good news of Jesus Christ and his message of peace, hope and salvation.
Message from Pope Francis: Missionary church, witness of mercy
Dear brothers and sisters,
The extraordinary jubilee Year of Mercy, which the church is celebrating, casts a distinct light on World Mission Sunday 2016: It invites us to consider the “missio ad gentes” as a great, immense work of mercy, both spiritual and material. On this World Mission Sunday, all of us are invited to “go out” as missionary disciples, generously offering their talents, creativity, wisdom and experience in order to bring the message of God’s tenderness and compassion to the entire human family. By virtue of the missionary mandate, the church cares for those who do not know the Gospel, because she wants everyone to be saved and to experience the Lord’s love. She “is commissioned to announce the mercy of God, the beating heart of the Gospel” (“Misericordiae Vultus,” 12) and to proclaim mercy in every corner of the world, reaching every person, young or old.
All peoples and cultures have the right to receive the message of salvation which is God’s gift to every person. This is all the more necessary when we consider how many injustices, wars and humanitarian crises still need resolution. Missionaries know from experience that the Gospel of forgiveness and mercy can bring joy and reconciliation, justice and peace. The mandate of the Gospel to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20) has not ceased; rather, this command commits all of us — in the current landscape with all its challenges — to hear the call to a renewed missionary “impulse,” as I noted in my apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium”: “Each Christian and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the ‘peripheries’ in need of the light of the Gospel” (20).
This jubilee year marks the 90th anniversary of World Missionary Day, first approved by Pope Pius XI in 1926 and organized by the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith. It is appropriate then to recall the wise instructions of my predecessors who ordered that to this Society be destined all the offerings collected in every diocese, parish, religious community, association and ecclesial movement throughout the world for the care of Christian communities in need and for supporting the proclamation of the Gospel even to the ends of the earth. Today, too, we believe in this sign of missionary ecclesial communion. Let us not close our hearts within our own particular concerns, but let us open them to all of humanity.
May Holy Mary, sublime icon of redeemed humanity, model of missionaries for the church, teach all men, women and families to foster and safeguard the living and mysterious presence of the risen Lord in every place, he who renews personal relationships, cultures and peoples, and who fills all with joyful mercy.
Message from Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
“Mercy changes the world!”
On World Mission Sunday, Oct. 23, Pope Francis invites each of us to be part of that change for our world of great need, calls us to announce the mercy of God, “the beating heart of the Gospel” (“Misericordiae Vultus,” 12).
On this 90th World Mission Sunday, our archdiocesan family joins our brothers and sisters around the world who will gather at the Lord’s table to celebrate, with great joy, our common vocation as missionaries. Our prayers and financial help, through the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, support the work of the mission church, its witness to Christ and service to the poor.
“Let us not close our hearts within our own particular concerns, but let us open them to all of humanity.”
Message for World Mission Sunday 2016
I echo these words of our Holy Father, asking you to open your hearts as you connect on World Mission Sunday with every corner of the globe . . . with the Americas, where catechists travel to remote areas to bring the good news of God’s great love to families; with Europe, where new churches are being built to welcome faith communities renewed after years of persecution; with Asia, where six million children receive an education from religious Sisters in some 16,000 church-run elementary schools; with the Pacific Islands, where 1,000 young men are preparing for the priesthood, to bring the Lord’s healing, hope and peace to those in need; with Africa, where those who are sick are provided with loving care at 6,400 Catholic hospitals and small clinics.
You can also continue this connection with the missions all year long through MISSIO — online at: missio.org or on your phone.
Grateful always for your generosity of spirit and heart, and confident of your missionary commitment to share the joy of the Gospel and help the poor, I pray for blessings for you and your families!
Sincerely yours in Jesus, the Lord of Life,
Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann
Archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas
Just The FAQs about World Mission Sunday
What can my World Mission Sunday donation help accomplish in the missions?
A gift of $25 is one month’s support for a mission catechist; $75 provides for the work of religious Sisters. An offering of $100 is one month’s help for a village mission. Always, your prayers are your most treasured gift to the missions.
On average, about how much money do Catholics in the United States offer to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith each year for the missions?
Catholics in the United States donate about $50 million every year to the Propagation of the Faith to support the evangelizing work of the church in the missions.
I just donated money to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. How else can I help the missions?
The life of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, patroness of the missions, offers Catholics insight into how they may fulfill their baptismal responsibility to share the good news of Jesus without ever “going to the missions.” St. Thérèse dedicated her life to the missions by offering her prayers and her personal sacrifices — her pain, her loneliness, her suffering — for missionaries and those whom they served.
Do Catholics throughout the world celebrate World Mission Sunday?
Absolutely! In fact, at the height of the genocide in the African nation of Rwanda, one small parish offered $81 on World Mission Sunday.
How can I help support vocations to the missions?
You can offer your prayers and personal sacrifices for the work of the Society of St. Peter Apostle. The Pontifical Society of St. Peter Apostle supports some 80,000 seminarians (major/minor) all over the world. You can also help young men as they prepare for the priesthood through the Society of St. Peter Apostle with a donation of $700 for a year of studies. A gift of $300 will help toward the formation of men and women novices preparing for a life of service as religious Brothers and Sisters.
For more information about World Mission Sunday, to subscribe to MISSION magazine or to donate, contact us online at: pmsusa@propfaith.org.
