While the number of Catholic priests and religious continues to decline, the number of lay missionaries, catechists, and permanent deacons continues to increase, according to the news agency Fides.
World Mission Sunday
In separate videos recorded in English, Spanish and Italian, Pope Leo XIV urged every Catholic parish around the globe to observe World Mission Sunday Oct. 19 and take up the annual collection that supports Catholic missionary work.
Amid wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, this year’s World Mission Sunday is “even more important” than ever, said an executive from the U.S. offices of the Pontifical Mission Societies. The universal Catholic Church will mark the observance Oct. 22, and the collection taken up that day forms the primary financial support for the societies, which have a presence in some 1,100 dioceses in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Pacific Islands and parts of Europe.
Living out and proclaiming the Gospel are inseparable aspects at the heart of an authentically Christian life and witness, Pope Francis said in his message for World Mission Sunday.