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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.

Catholic group helps parishes to share a table with the poor, following pope’s example

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When Pope Leo XIV sat down to lunch with people experiencing homelessness and poverty at Castel Gandolfo this month, he offered a model that one Catholic organization says any parish can follow.

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After Vatican’s excommunication, SSPX in Kenya insists on Catholic identity, fighting archdiocese

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As African bishops continue to back Pope Leo XIV over the excommunication of the Society of St. Pius X, known as SSPX, the traditionalist group in Kenya rejected the schismatic tag as it moved to assure followers of its Roman Catholic identity.

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Pilgrims flock to Castel Gandolfo for Pope Leo’s first summer Angelus

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When the 8:21 a.m. train left Rome’s Termini Station to Castel Gandolfo July 12, people packed like sardines into the regional cars. While two or three passengers got off at stations along the way, most disembarked at Castel Gandolfo and headed up the hill to see Pope Leo XIV during the Sunday Angelus prayer — the first this summer to be said from his lakeview residence.

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Pope Leo shares meal with vulnerable guests at Castel Gandolfo

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Under the Italian sun of Lake Albano and the shade of Castel Gandolfo’s Borgo Laudato si’ trees, Pope Leo XIV enjoyed lunch with people experiencing social vulnerability.

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How a baseball rosary found its way to Pope Leo XIV

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Imagine being a humble noncelebrity living a quiet life as a devoted family man and suddenly realizing that Pope Leo XIV actually knows your name and possesses something you created just for him.

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Our Lady of Gietrzwald mosaic unveiled in Vatican Gardens ahead of 2027 Jubilee

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A new mosaic of Our Lady of Gietrzwald was inaugurated in the Vatican Gardens in a June 30 ceremony attended by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, and Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda, president of the Polish bishops’ conference, who said the installation could deepen ties between Poland and the Holy See.

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