When the second collection basket is passed to parishioners in churches throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore Oct. 22-23, they will be contributing to the Mission Sunday worldwide evangelization efforts.
Pope Pius XI instituted Mission Sunday in 1926 to help fund missionary work all over the world and for Catholics in all parishes to recognize their common responsibility for global evangelization.
Most of the money collected will go to the Office of the Propagation of the Faith at the Vatican to support 1,100 missions around the world, said Deacon Rodrigue Mortel, M.D., director of the newly renamed Missions Office of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
The archdiocese averages about $225,000 during its annual collection, Deacon Mortel said.
When Father Ross M. Syracuse, O.F.M. Conv., pastor of St. Casimir, Canton, urges members of his congregation to give generously to the collection, he’ll emphasize the importance of the mission.
“While we ourselves can’t travel to the places where the mission activity takes place, we can prayerfully support it and make that concrete by our financial support,” Father Syracuse said. “We want them to put some meat on those prayers.”