The collection provides critical support to 1,124 dioceses in remote and resource-limited areas.
Parishes across the Archdiocese of Chicago will join Catholics worldwide in celebrating World Mission Sunday on Oct. 19, 2025, which is an annual event that highlights the Church’s global mission and supports communities of faith in 1,124 mission territories around the world. All parishes in the archdiocese will take up the World Mission Sunday collection during Masses on Oct. 18-19. Those unable to attend in person may contribute online through the parishes or at https://pvm.archchicago.org/mission-office/world-mission-sunday.
World Mission Sunday, established by Pope Pius XI in 1926, invites all Catholics to renew their commitment to spreading the gospel and to provide practical support to the Church in areas where it is young, poor and persecuted.
The annual papal message for World Mission Sunday was released in February. Pope Francis chose “Missionaries of Hope Among All Peoples” as the theme for the 2025 celebration. This year’s theme reflects Pope Francis’ call for every believer to live as a missionary disciple, sharing Christ’s love across borders and cultures.
“On this World Mission Sunday, we are sent forth to be messengers and builders of the hope of Christ,” said Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago. “As members of the family of God, united in mission, we celebrate with churches on every continent. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, let us open our arms to the world and offer our prayer and generosity.”
In his first address to the world, Pope Leo XIV said, “When I served as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru, I saw first-hand how the faith, the prayer and the generosity shown on World Mission Sunday can transform entire communities.”
He continued, “I urge every Catholic parish in the world to take part in World Mission Sunday. Your prayers, your support will help spread the Gospel, provide for pastoral and catechetical programs, help to build new churches, and care for the health and educational needs of our brothers and sisters in mission territories.”
As an Augustinian priest, Pope Leo XIV served in the missions in Peru from 1985 to 1999 and then as apostolic administrator and later as bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo from 2014 to 2023. As pontiff, Pope Leo XIV oversees the Pontifical Mission Societies which are tasked with coordinating support for dioceses with the greatest needs in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Oceania.
Funds collected on World Mission Sunday directly support the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, one of the Pontifical Mission Societies, which sustains mission priests, religious sisters and brothers, and lay catechists serving in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Pacific Islands and remote parts of Europe. The collection also supports the pontifical Catholic Near East Welfare Association, which accompanies Eastern churches in the Middle East, Northeast Africa, India and Eastern Europe as an instrument of love and a sign of hope.
According to the Pontifical Mission Societies USA, funds collected on World Mission Sunday support 82,498 seminarians in formation; 258,540 religious sisters providing care and catechesis; and 844,000 catechists sharing the faith at the grassroots. The funds also help sustain 12,000 health care centers; 8,750 orphanages and homes for the elderly and have helped with the construction of 570 new churches.
Pope Leo XIV’s video messages for World Mission Sunday can be found here: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/events/event.dir.html/content/vaticanevents/en/2025/10/13/videomessaggio-giornata-missionaria.html
More information about World Mission Sunday can be found at: https://pvm.archchicago.org/mission-office/world-mission-sunday
About the Archdiocese of Chicago
The Archdiocese of Chicago, the third largest in the United States, serves more than 1.9 million Catholics in 216 parishes in Cook County and Lake County, a geographic area of 1,411 square miles. The Archdiocese, pastored by Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, has more than 13,000 employees in its systems and ministries, including Catholic Charities, one of the region’s largest nonprofit social service agencies. The Archdiocese also has one of the country’s largest seminaries. Its 150+ elementary and secondary schools comprise one of the largest U.S. private school systems.
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