Support missions with donations on Mission Sunday

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Msgr. Francis Blood, St. Louis archdiocese mission director, greeted children at Sunday Mass at St. Joseph Church in Mutunguru, Kenya, last February. Msgr. Blood is calling on all Catholics to pray for missions and support them financially through the annual collection on Mission Sunday, Oct. 23.

People in 1,150 mission territories around the world are looking to their fellow Catholics for help. One way to provide that help is through the annual collection taken up on World Mission Sunday, this year Oct. 23.

"Every Catholic parish in the world will take up this collection on Mission Sunday," said Msgr. Francis Blood, director of the archdiocesan Mission Office and archdiocesan director of the Pontifical Mission Societies, including the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. "This is the pope's support system for the missionary efforts of the Church, supported by Catholics everywhere in the world. We, as baptized Catholics, must support it to carry out our missionary responsibility to the Holy Father and to God to evangelize the world."

This year's theme is "Celebrate the Hope That Saves," highlighting the thousands of missionaries that reach out around the world to lead others to Christ. As Archbishop Robert J. Carlson pointed out in a recent letter to priests, "thousands of Catholic missionaries depend on support for their missionary work" through the Propagation of the Faith and World Mission Sunday.

Every gift helps, Msgr. Blood said. A gift of $15 will support a seminarians for a week; $125 will help provide food, shelter, clothing, medical care and education for young girls in Thailand. But equally important is the gift of prayer, Msgr. Blood said.

"Financial support without prayer doesn't mean the ministry will be fruitful. We ask all Catholics to pray, particularly on World Mission Sunday, for missions everywhere."

For more information, go online to archstl.org/missions.