World Mission Sunday 2024
CHARLOTTE — Catholics in the Diocese of Charlotte are encouraged to support the Church’s outreach around the world on World Mission Sunday, observed this year on the weekend of Oct. 19-20.
This special second collection supports the Pontifical Mission Societies in mission efforts and evangelization around the world. Funds go toward medical care, food and education – especially in areas facing poverty and violence – and help build the Church in Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands and parts of Latin America and Europe.
World Mission Sunday was started by Pope Pius XI in 1927 and always falls on the next to last Sunday of October.
This year’s theme, chosen by Pope Francis, is “Go And Invite Everyone to the Banquet,” centered around Christ’s parable (Mt. 22:9) in which guests refuse a king’s invitation to a wedding feast, so he tells servants to go to the roads and invite those they find to the banquet instead.
Pope Francis said in a message for World Mission Sunday that the parable tells the faithful to seek out those from all corners of the world to share the message of Christ’s love, even if it means going to places that are far flung and dangerous.
“I take this opportunity to thank all those missionaries who, in response to Christ’s call, have left everything behind to go far from their homeland and bring the Good News to places where people have not yet received it,” he wrote. “We continue to pray, and we thank God for the new and numerous missionary vocations for the task of evangelization to the ends of the earth.”
Father Patrick Cahill has served as mission office director for the Diocese of Charlotte since 2014. He is also pastor of St. Eugene Parish in Asheville.
He said he thinks of the “hardships of the mission Church” with the aim of World Mission Sunday. “I reflect on the countless letters and requests that come to the Diocese of Charlotte, and I see the children and the nuns and the priests that are helped despite tragic, unjust and even horrific circumstances.”
Over the past year, Father Cahill visited Congo and El Salvador to see that funds sent from the diocese honor the intention of donors, and he said churches in these mission territories offer important lessons.
“After returning from the visits, I said to a friend that the people there cling to the Church and to their faith,” he said. “…Let us recognize the call Jesus gives us to remember the poor and those on the margins. We have so much to give and so much to receive by participating in this critical and essential work of the Church.”
— Christina Lee Knauss
More online
At www.onefamilyinmission.org: Learn more about the mission work of the Church worldwide and how your support impacts thousands of people