Welcome to the Pontifical Mission Societies

Letter from the Executive Director

In honor of the 100th anniversary of Pope Benedict XV’s Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud, which emphasized the missionary call to proclaim the Gospel, Pope Francis has declared October 2019 Extraordinary Missionary Month. He asks us to “use this time to focus our gaze on Jesus Christ and renew our commitment to serving the Gospel for the salvation of the men and women who live in those lands.” With this decree, World Mission Sunday becomes part of a greater invitation, an opportunity for a personal encounter with Jesus, as we are reminded of the relationship between faith and the world and recognize that we ourselves are the missionaries, baptized and sent.

   To help us focus during the Extraordinary Missionary Month, our Holy Father asked each country to select a missionary whose life could serve as a model of witness and commitment. The United States chose Sister Dorothy Stang, SNDdeN. Please click here to read more about her. I hope her story will serve as a source of strength and inspiration for this special time.

This year we celebrate World Mission Sunday on the weekend of October 19-20, and I invite you to embark on this journey as we revitalize our missionary hearts. Let us give generously to the Society for the Propagation of Faith on this World Mission Sunday in this Extraordinary Missionary Month. Your gift supports and sustains priests, religious and lay pastoral leaders in more than 1,111 mission dioceses in Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and parts of Latin America and Europe as they proclaim the Gospel, build the Church, and serve the poor.

Please be assured of my prayers that the Extraordinary Mission Month, culminating in World Mission Sunday, will be a time of renewed zeal and passion for you and all the members of your faith community.

Thank you in advance for your participation and God bless!

– Reverend Monsignor Terrance L. Fleming

                                   October 2019