World Mission Sunday 2023

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

In his Message for World Mission Sunday 2023, Pope Francis reiterates a key theme from Evangelii Gaudium: “Today more than ever, our human family, wounded by so many situations of injustice, so many divisions and wars, is in need of the Good News of peace and salvation in Christ. I take this opportunity to reiterate that ‘everyone has the right to receive the Gospel. Christians have the duty to announce it without excluding anyone, not as one who imposes a new obligation, but as one who shares a joy, signals a beautiful horizon, offers a desirable banquet’ (EG, 14). Missionary conversion remains the principal goal that we must set for ourselves as individuals and as a community, because ‘missionary outreach is paradigmatic for all the Church’s activity’ (EG, 15).”

This World Mission Sunday, we have the opportunity to take up the Pope’s call to share the Gospel and bring the Good News of His mercy to fellow members of our human family across the globe, especially in mission territories. One such way to do this is through financial support of the Pontifical Mission Society on Sunday, October 22. Your generous donations support catechists, priests, religious sisters, and lay people and help build churches, seminaries, convents, schools and hospitals in 1,150 mission dioceses worldwide. God’s love, joy, and hope become real when we demonstrate global solidarity with fellow Catholics through our prayers and financial resources.

In the 1800s, European Catholics donated $7 million to the young missionary Church in America, sowing the seeds of its growth on this continent. Now it is our turn to empower our sisters and brothers in Asian and African dioceses.

I invite you to join me for a special World Mission Sunday Mass at Holy Redeemer Church in New Bremen on Sunday, October 22 at 3:00 pm. Together we will pray and share our gratitude to God the Father and the Holy Spirit for the generosity for all the faithful here and abroad who contribute to sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Please accept my thanks for your support of the global mission of the Catholic Church. And please join me in praying with Pope Francis the prayer with which he closes his World Mission Sunday message: “Our Lady of the Way, Mother of Christ’s missionary disciples and Queen of Missions, pray for us.”

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Dennis M. Schnurr, Archbishop of Cincinnati