By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
World Mission Sunday – October 19, 2025
World Mission Sunday, celebrated this year on the weekend of October 18/19, is a reminder that all the baptized faithful are called to participate in the missionary activity of the Church. This year’s theme, “Missionaries of Hope Among the Peoples,” inspired by Romans 5:5, reminds us that the hope poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit is not meant to be stored away — it is meant to be shared.
Perhaps nowhere is this hope more urgently needed than in the 1,124 mission dioceses and territories around the world where the Church is too poor to stand on its own, where the Gospel is still taking root, and where in many places Christians are actively persecuted for their faith.
In these places, the presence of a missionary, often living in obscurity or under threat, is a lifeline. It is a sign that the world has not forgotten them, and more importantly, that Christ has not forgotten them and that his followers have come to care for and be with them.
Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born pope in history, is a man whose entire priestly life was shaped by missionary service. Before his election as the Successor of Peter, he spent decades living and working in mission territories in Peru. His love for the Church’s evangelizing work is not theoretical; it is personal. Earlier this year, he reminded us that The Pontifical Mission Societies, which oversee the World Mission Sunday collection, are “the primary means of awakening missionary responsibility among all the baptized.”
As a young priest working here in the Archdiocese of Miami among the Haitian people, I considered myself “a missionary in my own backyard.” After ordination, I had been assigned a parochial vicar at Corpus Christi Church in Allapattah. And after the then-Archbishop, Edward McCarthy, found out that I was learning Creole (I had already learned Spanish in the Seminary), he assigned me to the newly formed Haitian Apostolate in the late 1970s. This apostolate eventually established mission churches in Miami (Notre-Dame), Ft. Lauderdale (Divine Mercy), Pompano Beach (St. Joseph) and Delray Beach (Perpetual Help) and also involved a circuit riding ministry that stretched from Homestead to Fort Pierce, from Ft. Lauderdale to Immokalee, from Miami to Belle Glade. When asked what my “vision” was I would reply: “My task was to make the Church visible to Haitians, and to make Haitians visible to the Church.” These years shaped my pastoral heart and taught me the transformative power of presence, language, and solidarity.
Haiti remains close to my heart, and their struggle, both in their home country and here in the United States, teaches us that hope requires action and accompaniment, not just words. The Church in the mission fields of Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania needs us to sustain hope by giving them the needed resources to sustain pastoral, catechetical, educational and vocational programs.
Through the Pontifical Mission Societies, your contribution to the World Mission Sunday collection whether through a modest or a larger gift, builds up the Church and spreads the Gospel promise of salvation and hope. Some 258,540 religious sisters, 82,498 seminarians out of the world’s 200,000 and close to one million catechists rely on this World Mission Sunday collection.
Here in the United States, in the 19th century, we relied on the support of the World Mission Sunday collection, and now it is our turn to reach out to those who rely on us.
From the streets of Port-au-Prince to the newest parish in rural Asia, our solidarity matters and is desperately needed. As missionaries of hope, we offer more than material aid; we plant seeds of faith, nurture vocations, and build the Church. Your support is hope in action — and it is a hope that endures.
