Daniel del Castillo González
There are more than 107,000 mission stations around the world where no priest resides. Furthermore, there are 3,491 Catholics for every priest.
Behind these figures lies one of the Church’s greatest challenges: maintaining its presence in places where resources and pastoral workers are limited.
On Sunday, October 18, the Church celebrates World Mission Sunday, which will mark its 100th anniversary in 2026.
Before his lung surgery, Pope Leo XIV shared why this day also holds personal significance for him.
POPE LEO XIV:
Looking back on my youth, I can see how the prayers offered to the Lord of the Harvestmysteriously helped prepare my heart to hear Jesus' call to follow him as an Augustinian missionary. prayers and contributions of the faithful encouraged and sustained my missionary work in Peru.
The map of the Church is also changing. There are 1,422 million Catholics worldwide, accounting for 17.8% of the population. Africa now slightly surpasses Europe in the number of baptized Catholics: 288 million compared to 287 million.
It is also the continent where the Catholic population is growing the most. There, Catholics account for 19.9% of the population, compared to 39.7% in Europe.
The number of priests has increased for the first time in five years, albeit by only 425, reaching 407,421. The distribution is uneven: Europe has lost 2,400 priests, while Africa has gained 1,600.
In contrast to this trend, the number of lay missionaries is on the rise, exceeding 463,000.
REV. ANTHONY D. ANDREASSI, The Pontifical Missions Societies:
Not all of us will go to the missions. Very, very few of us will. Some will go for a short time, but the rest will not because of work or family commitments. So the important thing is to collaborate. That makes the efforts much more successful.
The mission isn’t just limited to preaching. The global network of Catholic institutions includes 230,924 schools and approximately 70 million students.
In the health care sector, there are 5,397 hospitals and more than 101,000 institutions providing care, charity, and assistance.
These figures show that the Church is the largest provider of education and health care. The missionaries demonstrate what this work truly means.
Fr. ANTONIO GUTIÉRREZ, Salesian missionary in Sierra Leone:
We must be apostles, and we must preach through our words, our example, and in every way we can through our lives.
SOR ROSA LILI, Poor Clare Missionary of the Most Holy Sacrament in Sierra Leone:
From that depth, it means giving ourselves to God so that we can give ourselves to our brothers and sisters.
A hundred years after its creation, World Mission Sunday continues to have two dimensions: providing tangible support to sustain missionaries and reminding people that the mission should not fall solely on those who travel far away.
