The 1994 Rwandan genocide claimed 1 million lives. Parishes now are trying to promote healing and Missio’s World Mission Sunday collection will help. Everyone’s understanding of mercy will be deepened

World mission Sunday falls annually on the penultimate Sunday in October – which this year is 23 October. It is the day in the year when Mass is celebrated in parishes throughout the world exclusively for the missionary activity of our Church. It is one of just three Sunday collections personally requested by our Holy Father each year to help support young and poor churches overseas.

The Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which the Church continues to celebrate until next month, casts a distinct light on this year’s World Mission Sunday. It marks the ninetieth anniversary of World Mission Day, which was approved by Pope Pius XI in 1926. Pope Francis invites us “to consider the missio ad gentes as a great, immense work of mercy” and he invites all of us “to bring the message of God’s tenderness and compassion to the entire human family”.

In this Year of Mercy, Pope Francis encourages us, saying that “we can, with the help of the Holy Spirit, become more merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful; we can learn to love as he loves us and make of our lives a free gift, a sign of his goodness”. Today, in a practical way, we can show our mercy with every parish community around the world uniting together through prayer and giving money to support those Catholic communities who are too poor or too young to support themselves.