“WE ACTUALLY got a lot of a lot of help from Frank Sinatra would you believe? He became one of our benefactors.” Missionary priests and religious sisters have an uncanny ability to downplay extraordinary titbits or stories from their time on mission, but this one took the biscuit and when interviewing Spiritan Father, Fr John McFadden, I had to get him to elaborate on this particular anecdote about Old Blue Eyes supporting the Church in Nigeria.

DEAR brothers and sisters, for World Mission Day 2026, which marks the centenary of a celebration established by Pope Pius XI that is very dear to the Church, I have chosen the theme 'One in Christ, united in mission.'

WITH centenary celebrations planned this year to mark the anniversary of the establishment of World Mission Sunday, as well as the 110th anniversary of the founding of the Pontifical Missionary Union and the 200th anniversary of the creation of the Living Rosary Association, it was perhaps fitting that 2026 began with a small but poignant celebration of Blessed Pauline Jaricot, the foundress of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

MISSION month 2025 may have come to and end but already the theme for next year's World Mission Sunday has been released by the Vatican.

TO MARK World Mission Day on Sunday October 19, the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, is asking every single parish in the world to help support missionaries who are working and serving in the remotest corners of the earth.