Pope Leo XIV offers his greetings as he begins his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Dec. 10, 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)
Addressing representatives of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS), Pope Leo XIV is inviting the entire Catholic Church to participate in World Mission Sunday through prayers and sacrifices to achieve stronger faith in God. During the PMS welcome reception at the Vatican Palace, the 70-year-old American pontiff recalled longtime National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States, Venerable Fulton Sheen, who will be beatified in September, as a “light of faith, hope, and love.”
He enthused how he himself witnessed Sheen’s evangelization when he was growing up.
“On World Mission Sunday, every Catholic community is invited to pray and offer spiritual and material sacrifices for the missionary efforts in areas of first evangelization and the support of young Churches,” Leo spelled out.
He likewise retraced the rich history of PMS and the Societies’ meaningful contribution to the Church and throughout the world for several decades.
“2026 marks several missionary milestones for PMS, especially the hundredth anniversary of establishing, at the request of the Pontifical Society of the Propagation of the Faith, the penultimate Sunday of October as World Mission Sunday by Pope Pius XI,” Leo noted.
“For one hundred years,” he observed, “this day has been set apart for prayer, reflection, and contributing to the Church’s mission of evangelization, especially in areas where the proclamation of the Gospel is only just beginning and where the Church is still young.”
“If I might add,” the pope added, “one of the particular services of World Mission Sunday is to remind people in the older churches, if you will in the established churches, how important it is that they too join in the missionary spirit of the whole Church.”
Leo also expressed thankfulness for the funds raised on World Mission Sunday, noting that the Pontifical Society of the Propagation of the Faith can provide necessary help to the over 1,130 ecclesiastical circumscriptions that depend on the Dicastery for Evangelization, Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches, to help them establish necessary ecclesiastical infrastructures and support diverse missionary initiatives.
“These and many more missionary initiatives are possible thanks to the generosity of the faithful on World Mission Sunday,” he said.
The Holy Father also thanked the Pontifical Mission Society of the Holy Childhood for carrying out “a particularly precious mission by bringing the light of faith and the consolation of Christian charity to children throughout the world, especially in regions afflicted by hatred and violence.”
He also commended the Pontifical Mission Society of Saint Peter the Apostle for promoting and sustaining the formation of indigenous clergy and consecrated religious in territories of first evangelization.
Leo concluded his message by entrusting all before him and all who share in the Pontifical Mission Societies’ “vital missionary work,” to the maternal intercession of the Mother of God, Mary, Queen of Missions, and that of all the missionary saints.