IN THE MID-1500S Catholics first came to the New World. The Church was young and small and required fellow Catholics from Europe to assist in the slow expansion of the Faith along the east coast. In 1634 an English Catholic settlement was founded in Maryland, and over 100 years later John Carroll was named the first bishop of the first diocese in Baltimore in 1789. It may never have occurred to you, dear reader, that the Church in the original 13 Colonies was mission land, supported by generous donors in Europe who took up collections to support our forebears!
It wasn’t until Nov. 3, 1908, that Pope St. Pius X declared that the Catholic Church in the United States was no longer a mission territory, that we had grown to a level of self-sufficiency and no longer needed support from the Propagation of the Faith. Foreign mission societies helped build our cathedrals, parishes, schools and seminaries for over a century.
Now it’s our turn to “pay it forward” by supporting churches that are too poor, too young, or too persecuted to meet their own needs. This year is the 100th anniversary of World Mission Sunday, started by Pope Pius XI in 1926 as a day for the whole Church to pray to the Harvest Master for missionaries and those to whom they are trying to bring the Gospel, as well as to take up a collection to assist them in this saving work. Prior to this, missionary work was more unstructured and run by a variety of religious orders and mission-minded organizations, like those who helped the U.S. more than a century ago.
Over the years, the Church in the United States has grown ever more generous through World Mission Sunday supporting missionary work in other countries. About 40 percent of the assistance received by missionary territories through World Mission Sunday comes from the United States, thanks to good people like you, dear reader. And this doesn’t account for other ways we give like the Missionary Cooperation appeal during the summer, or perhaps your parish adopted a missionary or mission project, or maybe you have sent money to a missionary yourself.
There have been a large number of national directors of the mission office in the U.S., most notably Archbishop Fulton Sheen whose charisma and media access made him the most well-known director from 1950-1966. He personally raised over $200 million for the missions, and contributed another $10 million from his earnings from radio, television, and books, and bequeathed 40 percent of his estate and copyrights from his books and recordings which is still raising money for the missions! Sheen was beatified on Sept. 24, and one can only expect that a renewed interest in his works will continue to generate money for the missions for years to come!
And now, for the first time, the Catholic Church has an American-born Pope! Robert Prevost grew up in Illinois; the same state where Blessed Fulton was born and raised. As a young man, he watched Sheen on television like millions of other Americans. Also, for the first time, we have a pope who was a missionary, working in Peru for many years as a priest and bishop. Now as Pope Leo XIV he had the honor of approving Sheen’s beatification and has made several remarks about the impact Blessed Fulton had on him and on the land of his birth. As a missionary, Pope Leo knows firsthand how essential America’s support is for the Church.
In his message for World Mission Sunday 2026 (which I hope you will search for and read!), our Holy Father asks us and all Catholics worldwide to be true missionaries, to be “One in Christ, united in mission.” We are part of a network of relationships where each Church gives and receives. Evangelizing the world is not just about sending money someplace else, but about seeing where Christ is not yet known and help others to discover Him here, in our own homes, with our struggling families or challenging social problems, a divided political climate. Jesus Christ relies of each of us to be missionaries right here! It’s not for specialists like missionary priests or nuns, but for each Catholic to give witness to the reality of Christ in our own lives and helping someone else who is lost or broken or searching to find the Jesus we already know and love!
I pray you will be generous with your support of the World Mission Sunday second collection in your parish Oct. 18! Blessed Fulton, pray for us! Pray for the missions!