World Mission Sunday

10-20-2024Pastor's CornerFr. Bob Deehan

This weekend, we celebrate World Mission Sunday, a special day that unites Catholics worldwide in prayer, solidarity, and support for the Church’s mission efforts, which is crucial for sustaining the Church’s outreach in over 1,150 mission territories. World Mission Sunday reminds us that we belong to a worldwide Church, which is not often in the forefront of our minds.

In a pastoral letter written in 1987 entitled, To the Ends of the Earth: A Pastoral Statement on World Mission, the bishops of the United States wrote, “The Church, therefore, is missionary by her very nature. She continues the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit by proclaiming to the ends of the earth the salvation Christ offers those who believe in him. We are faithful to the nature of the Church to the degree that we love and sincerely promote her missionary activity.

As teachers and pastors we are responsible for keeping alive a vibrant Catholic missionary spirit in the United States.” The Church in the United States was once mission territory itself, heavily reliant on support from Catholics worldwide. Today, 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. In the United States, we benefited from the collection held by the Society until 1908. Throughout the years, we received $7 million, the equivalent of over $250 million today. You may not know that our former pastor, Msgr. William Glynn was an Archdiocesan Director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith for 20 years back in the 50’s & 60’s.

If you did not have a chance to contribute to this weekend’s second collection in support of World Missions, you can still donate by visiting propfaithboston.org