Brooklyn and Queens may be thousands of miles from the places Catholics traditionally think of as “mission territory,” but on any given Sunday, the world gathers in the pews of our churches.
In the Diocese of Brooklyn, the faithful come from nations and cultures across the globe. They worship in different languages but profess the same faith.
That makes the 100th World Mission Sunday, to be celebrated on Oct. 18, particularly meaningful in our diocese. At its heart, the day carries a clear and simple message: Every Catholic is a missionary.
A century ago, Pope Pius XI established World Mission Sunday to deepen understanding of the Church’s missionary task, encourage prayer and missionary vocations, and support evangelization worldwide.
One hundred years later, Pope Leo XIV has given the observance a fitting theme: “One in Christ, united in mission.” For him, those words are personal. Before becoming pope, Robert Prevost served as an Augustinian missionary in Peru. The Holy Father recently reflected on how Catholic prayers helped prepare him to hear Christ’s call to become a missionary.
“Looking back on my youth, I can see how the prayers offered to the Lord of the harvest mysteriously helped prepare my heart to hear Jesus’ call to follow him as an Augustinian missionary,” he said. He added that the faithful’s prayers and contributions sustained his missionary work in Peru and the work of many others.
That connection matters. Catholics who prayed for missionaries or contributed to the missions years ago could not have known where those prayers and generosity would lead. Yet, among the missionaries they helped sustain was a man who would one day become pope.
It is a powerful reminder never to underestimate what God can accomplish through seemingly small acts of faith. It should also broaden our understanding of mission.
Pope Leo stresses that “no baptized person is exempt from or indifferent to mission.” Missionaries still leave their homelands and families to bring Christ to distant and often difficult places. They deserve our prayers and generous support.
But mission also happens closer to home. It happens when parents teach their children to pray, when Catholic school teachers pass on the faith, when parishioners care for neighbors in need, and when ordinary Catholics have the courage to live their faith openly.
That is especially important in our diocese, where parishes offer daily proof that the Church transcends borders, languages, and cultures.
Mission, Pope Leo reminds us, also requires unity. He warns that conflict, polarization, misunderstandings, and mistrust within Christian communities undermine the Church’s witness. Instead, he calls for “hearts that are reconciled and eager for communion.”
That message matters in a divided time.
If Catholics are called to bring Christ’s love to the world, we must first be willing to show that love to one another. For 100 years, World Mission Sunday has directed Catholics’ eyes toward the ends of the earth.
As its second century begins, we should continue looking outward. But here in Brooklyn and Queens, we should also look around us.
The missions may be across an ocean, or even across the street. Either way, the assignment remains the same: Bring
Christ to others.
As Pope Leo put it, evangelization is “always a work of love.”