The Vatican presented this Friday the theme of the 100th World Mission Day, to be celebrated on October 18, 2026.
“One in Christ, united in the mission,” is the theme of the next missionary day, according to a statement of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches, Pontifical Missionary Societies.
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With this theme, the 100 years of this day will be celebrated, established by Pope Pius XI at the request of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
The statement recalls that Pope Leo XIV, in his message this year for World Mission Day, highlighted that this is a privileged occasion in which the entire Church unites in prayer for missionaries and for the fruitfulness of their apostolic work.
Leo XIV, recalling his personal experience as a priest and then as a missionary bishop in Peru, said “I have seen with my own eyes how faith, prayer and generosity demonstrated on this Day can change entire communities.”
The statement further indicates that “the theme of the 2026 World Mission Day, which in its first part recalls the motto chosen by the Holy Father for his pontificate’In that one one‘(In Him, only one), remembers the unity of the faithful in faith, based on the unity of Christ with the Father, and the consequent common mission of evangelization.
“The next step in the preparation of World Mission Day 2026 will be the dissemination, in the first months of the year, of the Holy Father’s message,” the Vatican text continues.
“This will become the common thread of the numerous initiatives of animation and formation of the missionary spirit and responsibility in all the faithful throughout this significant year, during which the 110th anniversary of the founding of the Pontifical Missionary Union will also be celebrated.”
This, the statement concludes, was “defined by Saint Paul VI as ‘the soul of the other Pontifical Missionary Societies’ (Office for the Propagation of the Faith, Society of Holy Childhood and Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter the Apostle). These four societies, each with its own specificity, are jointly dedicated to promoting missionary responsibility among the baptized and supporting the new particular Churches.”
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.