Your ongoing support of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith is vital to the missionaries serving in 1,111 dioceses throughout Asia, Africa, parts of Latin America and Europe, and on the Islands of the Pacific. Your generosity makes it possible for local priests, religious, and catechists to reach out to communities, families and children in desperate need, bringing the light of Christ to the darkest of circumstances.

The World Mission Sunday celebration highlights the outreach of local churches through priests, religious and laity among the poor and marginalized half a world away. Life-changing help is provided to mission churches in territories covering more than half the globe.

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28 September 2016

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

On Sunday, October 23rd, the Church will mark the 90th annual World Mission Sunday. This day is meant as “the feast of universal solidarity” in sharing our faith with our neighbors and with the whole world. It is a special day of prayer and support for the evangelizing mission of the Church, proclaiming Christ’s great mercy everywhere in the world. Each year on this day, we are reminded to pray and work for conversion of hearts and the building up of the Church wherever she is not yet well established or the mercy of Christ is most in need.

The face of the Church reflects the generous mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his message for this year’s celebration, our Holy Father, Pope Francis, wrote, “When mercy encounters a person, it brings deep joy to the Father’s heart; for from the beginning the Father has lovingly turned towards the most vulnerable, because his greatness and power are revealed precisely in his capacity to identify with the young, the marginalized and the oppressed.... Mercy finds its most noble and complete expression in the Incarnate Word. Jesus reveals the face of the Father who is rich in mercy; he ‘speaks of [mercy] and explains it by the use of comparisons and parables, but above all he himself makes it incarnate and personifies it’ (John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia, 2).

When we welcome and follow Jesus by means of the Gospel and sacraments, we can, with the help of the Holy Spirit, become merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful; we can learn to love as he loves us and make of our lives a free gift, a sign of his goodness (cf. Misericordiae Vultus, 3). The Church, in the midst of humanity, is first of all the community that lives by the mercy of Christ: she senses his gaze and feels he has chosen her with his merciful love.” Each of us, in our daily life, is called to open our hearts to the saving love and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to share what we receive from Him with those around us. By letting ourselves be loved, we learn to love; and by loving in every circumstance, we live the mission of the Church.

Your prayers and generosity in this collection will support the needs of the Church in places where she is persecuted, or just beginning to take root. These funds are used to build parishes and schools, hospitals and seminaries, and to support religious life, in new dioceses and wherever the Church is most in need of resources to support the mission. On this World Mission Sunday, I ask that you all pray diligently for the Church throughout the world. I encourage you to be generous in your donations to the World Mission collection. May the Lord “bless the work of our hands… and make us a holy people, sacred to Himself, if we keep all His commandments and walk only in His ways” (Dt 28:8-9).

Your brother in Christ,

Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless
Bishop of Sioux City