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Pope Leo XIV speaks to students in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican Oct. 30, 2025, as part of the Jubilee of the World of Education. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Vatican announces theme for World Mission Sunday 2026


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Catholic News Service Filed Under: Missions, News, World News

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When the Catholic Church celebrates World Mission Sunday for the 100th time in 2026, it will focus on theme, “One in Christ, united in mission.”

The theme, chosen by Pope Leo XIV, is a reflection of his episcopal motto, “In Illo uno unum,” or literally “In the One, we are one.”

The Vatican announced Oct. 31 the theme for the 2026 observance, which will be celebrated Oct. 18. A papal message on the theme is expected in early February.

The theme “highlights the unity of believers in the faith, founded on the unity of Christ with the Father, and the consequent shared mission of evangelization,” the Vatican said.

For World Mission Sunday, Catholics around the globe spend time learning about the Catholic missions, pray in support of missionaries and make donations to support the work of the church in mission lands.

Ahead of the 2025 celebration, Pope Leo had issued a video explaining that “when I served as a missionary priest and then bishop in Peru, I saw first-hand how the faith, the prayer and the generosity shown on World Mission Sunday can transform entire communities.”

As an Augustinian priest, Pope Leo had served in the missions in Peru from 1985 to 1999 and then as apostolic administrator and later bishop of Chiclayo from 2014 to 2023.

Pope Pius XI instituted World Mission Sunday in 1926 to ensure that Catholics around the world shared responsibility for the missionary work of the church.

Pope encourages Catholics to deepen prayer through Liturgy of the Hours

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Returning to his weekly general audiences after a monthlong summer break, Pope Leo XIV urged Catholics to embrace the Liturgy of the Hours more fully in their daily lives, saying the church’s public prayer is an antidote to a world shaped by technology, consumerism and an efficiency-driven mindset.

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Pope Leo XIV’s August prayer intention is ‘for evangelization in the city’

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Pope Leo XIV is inviting Catholics to pray “for evangelization in the city” as his August prayer intention, asking the Lord to accompany millions searching for meaning amid the noise and haste of urban life.

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Pope Leo writes to 97-year-old cardinal who spent 18 years in labor camps

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At the age of 97, Cardinal Ernest Simoni, returned to the former prison camp in Albania where he used to offer Mass in secret during his 18 years of sentenced forced labor, offering a public Mass July 31 in the memory of those who suffered and died at the labor camp.

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Pope Leo’s meeting with Patti Smith highlights rocker’s Church-adjacent artistry

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The American singer-songwriter Patti Smith met with Pope Leo XIV July 31 in a private audience at the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.

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Pope Leo on his ancestry, and how he’s a ‘pope who happens to be American’

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Pope Leo XIV spoke with Tom Llamas of NBC News July 29 about being the first American pope, his diverse ancestry and whether he might be coming to the U.S. soon.

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Pope Leo XIV to offer public Masses and audiences every week of August

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Pope Leo XIV will celebrate a public Mass every week of August after taking time to rest in Castel Gandolfo during the month of July.

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