Vatican City, 29 August, 2020 / 1:30 pm (ACI Africa).
The Vatican confirmed Friday that World Mission Sunday will take place as scheduled Oct. 18, underlining the importance of evangelization and support for the Church’s mission territories amid the pandemic.
“The missionary energy of the people of God remains preeminent. Faith, in fact, by its nature is missionary and the celebration of World Mission Day serves to keep alive in all the faithful this essential dimension of the Christian faith,” the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples said in a statement Aug. 28.
“Furthermore, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples entrusts itself to the sense of communion and co-responsibility with the bishops with regard to the day’s collection in support of the Pontifical Mission Societies, which work in a universal context for an equitable support of the churches in the mission territories.”
World Mission Sunday -- also known as World Mission Day -- is celebrated annually on the next-to-last Sunday in October. This year it falls on Oct. 18. The day is marked by a collection for the Pontifical Mission Societies, a group of Catholic missionary societies under the jurisdiction of the pope.
Several worldwide Catholic collections were postponed this year due to the suspension of public Masses in many parts of the world amid the coronavirus pandemic.