We are getting close to World Mission Month. This year’s World Mission Sunday is one month from today, on October 18, and there are a few elements to this year’s celebration that I wanted to bring to your attention.  

For starters, Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s Beatification next week, on September 24, brings to the altar the man who was the voice of World Mission Sunday for many years. Sheen was the national director of The Pontifical Mission Societies from 1950 to 1966. These mission societies, while not always well known among US Catholics, are the Holy Father’s principal means to raise awareness and support for the Church’s missionary efforts around the world. One of the four societies, The Society of the Propagation of the Faith, is what administers World Mission Sunday. I am sure we will be able to count on the intercession of soon-to-be Blessed Fulton J. Sheen on October 18! 

Another element that makes this very special is that this year marks the 100th anniversary of World Mission Sunday’s establishment by Pope Pius XI in 1926. We look back with gratitude over the 100 years that it has been helping the Church to bring the Gospel to missionary lands for the first time, as well as to places where the Church is too young, too poor, and too persecuted to sustain herself.  

Father, with these special events in mind, I want to invite you to five very easy tasks you can do for your parish leading up to World Mission Sunday.  

First, please take up a collection! While second collections can be organizationally burdensome, the World Mission Sunday collection has a deeper theological meaning behind it. It’s not just another second collection! Because of its importance to the life of the Church universal and to the fulfillment of Jesus’ great commission, it’s the only collection mandated in canon law (c. 791). Leading them in prayer for the missions and giving them a chance to sacrifice for and support them is a key means to help them fulfill the missionary dimension of their baptism.  

Second, last year, the Holy Father produced a one-minute video message on World Mission Sunday that he intended to be shown to all the Catholics of the world. Our American pope was the first pontiff ever to produce a video message for World Mission Sunday, because from his time as a missionary in Peru, he recognized how important it is. In his closing message, he said: “Help me to help missionaries throughout the world!” This year, we are very hopeful that the Holy Father will again record a video for World Mission Sunday. If he does, I will make sure to get this video to you as soon as I get it from the TPMS National Office. I encourage you to share it with your parishioners before Mass on World Mission Sunday, as well as through emails, social media, and on your website. Some pastors do not have a way to play the video; if so, please at least play the audio through the sound system. If your parishioners hear the Holy Father personally asking for help, they will respond with great generosity. 

Third, please encourage your parishioners to pray for missionaries and the communities they serve. An inspiring way to do this is with the World Mission Rosary, designed by Archbishop Sheen 75 years ago this year. October is not just Mission Month, but also the month of Our Lady of the Rosary. Would you think about leading your parishioners in the World Mission Rosary during October? You can find all about the World Mission Rosary at www.missionsla.org/wmr. 

Fourth, please display the posters and envelopes you will receive in the mail in the next couple of days and continue to display the prayer cards sent to your parish in May. These will remind the faithful about World Mission Sunday ahead of this day of prayer and giving. If you need more prayer cards, please let our office know.

Finally, please preach about the missions on World Mission Sunday. If helpful, you can find suggested homiletic talking points, inspiring stories, parish and bulletin announcements, Prayers of the Faithful, and even suggested musical selections to animate the liturgy at www.missionsLA.org/wms.  

On behalf of the heroic missionaries spreading the faith across the globe, thank you for helping to make World Mission Sunday a success. May God bless all your efforts to inspire missionary discipleship among all those entrusted to you.