Oct. 20 World Mission Sunday reveals faith's global impact
October 18, 2024
In his 2024 World Mission Sunday message, which celebrates missionaries and their work, Pope Francis reflects on the Gospel parable of the Wedding Banquet, where the king tells his servants “Go therefore to the thoroughfares and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find.”
In 1926 Pope Pius XI instituted Mission Sunday for the whole Church with the first worldwide Mission Sunday collection taking place in October 1927. The Mission Sunday collection is always taken on the next to last Sunday during the month of October, this year on Sunday, Oct. 20. That day is celebrated in all the local Churches as the feast of catholicity and universal solidarity so Christians the world over will recognize their common responsibility with regard to the evangelization of the world in over 1,150 mission territories.
The invitation to the banquet is linked to the Eucharistic table, where believers share the Body and Blood of Christ, anticipating the final banquet. The Holy Father writes, Here it should be remembered that breaking our material bread with the hungry in the name of Christ is already a work of Christian mission. How much more so is the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, which is Christ himself, a work of mission par excellence, since the Eucharist is the source and summit of the life and mission of the Church.
The celebration of World Mission Sunday is a popular day for a pope to canonize new saints -- not only those who ministered or gave up their lives in lands traditionally known as mission territories, but women and men from every walk of life and from around the world.
The 2024 celebration of World Mission Sunday Oct. 20 will be no different. Pope Francis is scheduled to declare saints: Blessed Giuseppe Allamano, founder of the Consolata Missionaries; eight Franciscan friars and three Maronite laymen who were martyred in Syria in 1860; Canada-born Blessed Marie-Léonie Paradis, founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family; and Blessed Elena Guerra, an Italian nun who founded the Oblates of the Holy Spirit.
The impact of World Mission Sunday for the Church in the United States:
The Church in the United States was once mission territory, heavily reliant on support from Catholics worldwide. On World Mission Sunday, U.S. Catholics have the opportunity to return that generosity by supporting global missions. Run by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, one of four Pontifical Mission Societies, this day of giving has seen the Church come together on the Pope’s request since 1926, when Pope Pius XI made this the only canonically mandatory universal collection.
The World Mission Sunday collection is inspired in the efforts made by laywoman Blessed Pauline Jaricot, who founded the Society for the Propagation of the Faith back in 1822. She asked her friends to pray for the Church in mission territories daily, and donate a penny a week. Two-thirds of those first pennies raised were sent to the vast diocese of Louisiana, which then extended from the Florida Keys to Canada. Missions in the United States benefited from the collection held by the Society until 1908. Throughout the years, U.S. missions received $7 million, the equivalent of over $250 million today.
Supporting Mission Territories:
On World Mission Sunday, the Gospel’s calls all to “Go and invite everyone to the banquet,” that is the theme chosen by Pope Francis for this year’s World Mission Sunday celebration. This table is set by those who answer Christ’s call to “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19), extending an inclusive invitation to all corners of the Earth, especially in territories where it has not yet been received, has been only recently embraced, or is courageously upheld in the face of persecution: From the windswept plains of Mongolia to the dense forests of the Amazon, contributions from the faithful all over the world your contributions have made you a partaker in this holy mission—a mission that continues to invite everyone to experience the boundless love of God.
Faith in Action:
Participating in World Mission Sunday is a tangible way for Catholics to live out the Great Commission, bringing the message of Christ to the ends of the earth. It’s an expression of solidarity with missionaries and a means to share Christ’s love universally.
Through the contributions collected on World Mission Sunday, Catholics worldwide ensure that the Church continues its mission to invite to the banquet of the Lord the poorest and most marginalized, including those in South Sudan.
The local missionary zeal is felt also on the World Mission Sunday collection: Last year, parishes across the world’s poorest nation raised $8.354,30, three times what they were able to contribute in 2018 to the general fund of The Pontifical Mission Societies, that is used to build churches, cover the education of seminarians and novices and the formation of catechists in 1,150 mission territories.
The Pontifical Mission Societies and Catholic News Service contributed to this report.