Seven Spanish missionaries in Togo feature in the Domund 2026 campaign video

Seven Spanish missionaries representing five different charisms appear in the campaign video for Domund 2026, the Spanish Church's annual World Mission Sunday appeal. The video was filmed in Lomé, the capital of Togo, and takes up the theme chosen by Pope Leo XIV for this year's mission day: "One in Christ, united in mission." Domund marks its centenary this year.

The seven missionaries

Pilar Sánchez is a religious sister of the Adoratrices (AASC) and works with women at risk of exploitation. Magdalena Ribas is a Comboni sister and cares for people with AIDS. Joan and Óscar Jiménez belong to the ADSIS communities and provide training for young people without resources. Eulalia Giraldo is an itinerant of the Neocatechumenal Way and closely follows the Christian initiation of adults. Juan José Tenías is a Comboni missionary devoted to the ad gentes mission. Francisco Javier is a Discalced Carmelite and serves the faithful of several parishes.

All seven are Spanish, all work in Lomé and all exercise different charisms. All of them say this diversity is not an obstacle. "We are all different in our projects and in the way we do things, but diversity is not a difficulty, it is a source of richness," said Óscar Jiménez, a layman of ADSIS. He added: "We are called to care for our unity and to give thanks for what unites us, which is the Lord."

Adoration

The video shows the seven missionaries giving their personal testimony and praying together before the Blessed Sacrament. Sánchez said that "Adoration is our life, it is what sustains us." She asked: "If we do not have Adoration, the Lord, what are we going to give to the women?"

Ribas also described prayer as essential to her work with AIDS patients. "The fact that I leave Jesus in the chapel does not mean that I stop being united to Jesus in what I am doing," she said.

Providence and prayer

Tenías, who has spent his life in evangelization, used the video to thank those who support him. "I want to thank all the people who from the beginning of my mission have been supporting me with their prayer, their affection, their financial help," he said.

Giraldo, of the Neocatechumenal Way, said: "We live on Providence and on the prayers of others." She described how that prayer reaches her: "I know there are sick people who offer their sufferings for evangelization, for those of us who are working on the front line. I have felt low, with some problem, and you notice something that lifts you up and you say: someone is praying for me."

Forty years of Domund videos

The Domund videos have been "a fundamental part of the campaign for 40 years," although slides and posters have been used since the first Domund in 1926. The 2026 video continues a practice going back almost a century, in which the missionaries tell their own stories and viewers see specific faces and specific work.

The video is available on the Domund centenary website, https://domund100.es/, which also carries a short report on the history of the videos as a tool of mission promotion. The report says that "the missionaries have always been the protagonists."