Pope Leo XIV marks 100 years of World Mission Sunday as Spain and Latin America celebrate
Dioceses across Spain and Latin America held Masses, congresses and youth events for the centenary of World Mission Sunday, known in Spanish as the DOMUND, which Pope Pius XI established in 1926
The Catholic Church marked the centenary of World Mission Sunday on Sunday, October 18, with events in Spain and Latin America under the theme "One in Christ, united in mission." The day is known in Spanish-speaking countries as the DOMUND. Bishops, priests, religious and the faithful recalled a hundred years of an initiative that Pope Pius XI established in 1926 to promote prayer and financial support for missionaries. From Rome, Pope Leo XIV called for a renewed commitment to evangelization.
At the Sunday Angelus, the pope noted the anniversary and asked the faithful to keep the missionary task alive. "Let us think of how much missionary history there is in these hundred years!" he said, asking for prayers that the Church remain faithful to the command to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world.
The pope served part of his ministry as an Augustinian missionary in Peru. In a video message released for the centenary, he recalled how the prayers and financial contributions of the faithful sustained his own missionary work and that of many religious and lay people in various countries.
Celebrations in Spain
In Santiago de Compostela, Archbishop Francisco José Prieto celebrated Mass at the parish of San Juan de Ortoño. He said the missionary dimension is part of the most basic Christian identity. "To be a Christian is to be mission, to be the proclamation of the Gospel," he said, adding that evangelization is not reserved for those who leave for other countries but should run through the daily life of every community.
The Cathedral of Mary Immaculate in Vitoria-Gasteiz, in Spain's Basque Country, hosted another of the main celebrations, a Mass broadcast on La 2 of Televisión Española, the Spanish public broadcaster, and celebrated by Bishop Juan Carlos Elizalde. Bishop Joseba Segura of Bilbao, chairman of the Spanish bishops' commission for the missions, and José María Calderón, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies, also took part.
"We walk on the shoulders of giants," Elizalde said, recalling Ángel Sagarmínaga, the first national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Spain, appointed in 1926. He said Vitoria was the first Spanish diocese to take on a mission territory in Ecuador, in the 1940s, and urged the faithful to ask themselves specific questions: "What is my contribution in this Centenary of the Domund? Only financial? From which community am I sent? Where, to whom and with whom?"
In a pastoral letter, Archbishop Florencio Roselló of Pamplona, who is also bishop of Tudela, highlighted the historic links between Navarre, in northern Spain, and missionary work. "To speak of Navarre is to say mission, and to speak of mission is to say Navarre," he wrote, recalling generations of Navarrese religious. The archdiocese said 392 missionaries from Navarre are now working in 50 countries in Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia.
Roselló said mission cannot be reduced to humanitarian work, and insisted that its root is Christian faith. "How many missionaries have died on the missions 'with their people'!" he said, calling that self-giving a form of "extreme love."
Bishop Pedro Aguado of Huesca and Jaca and the bishop of Tenerife also published pastoral letters for the centenary, on cooperation with the Churches in mission territories and on the part Christian communities play in evangelization.
The Archdiocese of Madrid held another edition of its Missionary Train on Saturday, October 17, the eve of the DOMUND. The event brought together children, young people and families from schools, parishes and Church movements for activities about the work of missionaries, with Auxiliary Bishop Vicente Martín attending.
Latin America joins the commemoration
In Colombia, the Diocese of Sonsón-Rionegro held the DOMUND Centenary Congress 2026 from October 16 to 18 in La Ceja del Tambo, in the department of Antioquia, with priests, religious, seminarians and lay people from the region.
The Colombian Bishops' Conference organized a five-week program for Missionary October, with prayer, formation, vocations promotion and financial support. The Argentine Bishops' Conference distributed materials prepared by the Pontifical Mission Societies to encourage Catholic communities to take part. In Bolivia, missionary bodies also promoted pastoral materials and awareness activities.
A hundred years of support for the missions
Pope Pius XI established World Mission Sunday in 1926 at the proposal of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith, to encourage prayer and financial cooperation by Catholics with the missions. It has been observed every October since.
In Spain, the Pontifical Mission Societies channel contributions from the faithful to mission territories, where they fund pastoral work and education, health care and social projects. In his official message for the centenary, Leo XIV urged the whole Church to continue on the missionary path with joy and generosity, stressing communion among Christian communities and the cooperation of all the baptized.
