World Mission Sunday is a day set aside for the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

throughout the world to publicly renew its commitment to the missionary movement, coordinated by the

Pontifical Mission Societies The Pontifical Mission Societies, known in some countries as Missio, is the name of a group of Catholic missionary societies that are under the jurisdiction of the Pope. These organizations include the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, th ...

, who are also known as ''Missio''. It is celebrated on the

penultimate Penult is a linguistics term for the second to last syllable of a word. It is an abbreviation of ''penultimate'', which describes the next-to-last item in a series. The penult follows the antepenult and precedes the ultima. For example, the main ...

(next-to-last) Sunday of October every year, (;Bishops' Conference of England and Wales
World Mission Sunday 2021
accessed 31 October 2021 ). It was created by

Pope Pius XI Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City fro ...

in 1926 as the day of prayer for missions. Closely related to

Society for the Propagation of the Faith The Society for the Propagation of the Faith (Latin: ''Propagandum Fidei'') is an international association coordinating assistance for Catholic missionary priests, brothers, and nuns in mission areas. The society was founded in Lyon, France, in ...

. The theme in 2021 was ''We cannot but speak about what we have seen and heard'', words taken from .

References

Catholic holy days October observances Holidays and observances by scheduling (nth weekday of the month) Christian Sunday observances {{Catholicism-stub