At Prestea Catholic Church in Ghana, the World Mission Sunday collection is not a basket passed quietly down the pew. It is a celebration.

Parishioners in Ghana participate in the offertory procession during a World Mission Sunday Mass. The annual observance unites Catholics in prayer and support for the Church’s worldwide missionary work. (Submitted photo)

While leading an immersion pilgrimage there, I watched the congregation rise and process forward with offerings for the Pope’s missions. They gave from what they had and they gave gladly, knowing their gifts would join those of Catholics around the world.

In Koforidua, where Ghana’s only Catholic hospice is being built, I saw the other half of the story. What Ghana’s parishes send to Rome does not simply leave; part of it returns to help the Church there continue its work.

The same occurs throughout the missionary Church. In Malawi, for example, World Mission Sunday contributions support evangelization, formation for priests, seminarians, sisters, young people and catechists, and missionary education.

One Hundred Years of One Collection

This October marks the 100th anniversary of World Mission Sunday. Instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1926, it is celebrated globally on the next-to-last Sunday of October.

Canon 791 directs every diocese to celebrate an annual day for the missions and send a suitable annual offering to the Holy See.

Proceeds from World Mission Sunday go to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, one of the four Pontifical Mission Societies. Under the Holy Father’s direction, they support 1,130 mission territories where the Church is young, materially poor or persecuted.

Pope Leo XIV has said he witnessed firsthand how the faith, prayer and generosity expressed through World Mission Sunday can transform communities. I have seen it, too.

The Mission by the Numbers

Africa’s growing Catholic population illustrates both the vitality and needs of the missionary Church.

According to the Vatican’s Fides News Agency’s 2025 statistical report, which largely reflects 2023 data, the world had 1.405 billion Catholics, nearly 15.9 million more than the previous year. More than half that growth — 8.3 million — occurred in Africa.

The report also found:

Africa was the only continent in which the number of major seminarians increased, reaching 34,924.

Africa had 5,094 Catholics for every priest, compared with a worldwide average of 3,453.

Only 3,200 of the world’s 122,777 mission stations had a resident priest.

Ghana, home to more than 4 million Catholics and more than 1,000 major seminarians, is among Africa’s 530 mission territories. Parishes that once received the faith from missionaries now process forward each October to pass it on.

What Our Gifts Accomplish

Dr. Antoinette Mensah, left, and Yolanda Sánchez of Austin, Texas, meet Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, during a Sept. 25 symposium honoring Blessed Fulton J. Sheen. The Augustine Institute and The Pontifical Mission Societies USA hosted the event. (Submitted photo)

In 2025, gifts from U.S. parishes built 271 missionary churches, supported 87,977 seminarians and trained 844,000 missionary catechists, according to The Pontifical Mission Societies USA. The societies support two of every five seminarians in the world.

Blessed Fulton J. Sheen, beatified Sept. 24, 2026, in St. Louis, oversaw this collection during his 16 years as national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

He understood why the missions look to us.

“The superfluities of the United States,” he said, “are the necessities of the poor.”

Our Turn to Process Forward

The mission also comes to us. Missionary sisters from Kenya, Uganda and India now serve across southeastern Wisconsin. The Little Sisters of St. Francis serve at All Saints, St. Ann’s Center for Intergenerational Care, St. Augustine, St. Camillus Life Plan Community, St. Roman, St. James in Mukwonago and Clement Manor. The Sisters of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament serve at St. Camillus and volunteer at St. Joseph Parish in Wauwatosa and St. Therese Parish on Bluemound Road.

Priests of the Missionary Fraternity of Mary lead pastoral care at several parishes, alongside priests of our own Milwaukee-based Community of St. Paul. The young churches World Mission Sunday helped build now send missionaries of their own, sharing the gifts of their faith and cultures and reminding us that we are one Church, united in mission.

In the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, World Mission Sunday is part of the fall Combined Collections, taken up this year Oct. 10-11. In 2025, Catholics across the archdiocese gave $95,000. If you missed the collection or feel moved to give more, gifts are welcome year-round through the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

Our parishes may not process to the altar as the faithful do in Prestea. But whenever we give to the missions, we join the same procession: a century of Catholics in every land, giving thanks for the faith by sharing it.

Dr. Antoinette Mensah is director of World Mission Ministries for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, which includes the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and the Milwaukee Archdiocesan Office for World Mission.

To learn more, call 414-758-2280 or email wmo@archmil.org.