2024 年 3 月 24 日，尼日利亞奧約州伊巴丹天主教基督君王堂，一名少女在聖枝主日彌撒期間用棕櫚葉製作十字架。 （圖：Tolu Owoeye / Shutterstock）
( 本文譯自National Catholic Register 網站，https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/help-pope-leo-help-missionaries）
評論：10 月 19 日，教會慶祝普世傳教節，教宗將募款與希望禧年和每個基督徒的聖洗聖召聯繫起來。
羅傑蘭德里蒙席2025年10月14日
本週早些時候，教宗良做了一件其他教宗從未做過的事。他為普世傳教節錄製了一段視頻講話，親口呼籲全世界的天主教徒「幫助我幫助世界各地的傳教士」。
這段影片長度略超過一分鐘，方便在社交媒體、堂區和教區電子郵件群發、網站和其他管道分享。它更特別適合在10月19日普世傳教節彌撒前播放。每年的這一天，世界各地的天主教徒都會為傳教士祈禱，為傳教士們將福音帶給的人們祈禱，也為所有受洗者燃起更旺盛的傳教心火祈禱。
教宗的講話以英語、西班牙語和義大利語錄製，並配有法文和葡萄牙文字幕的英語版本，他首先提醒大家普世傳教節的重要性，以及如何號召所有信徒同心向莊稼的主人祈禱，祈求收割莊稼所需的工人和他們成功拯救人靈（瑪竇福音 9:38）。
教宗說：「親愛的兄弟姊妹們，每年的普世界傳教節，整個教會都會團結一致地祈禱，特別是為傳教士及其使徒工作的成果祈禱。」
他回憶了自己作為奧斯定會傳教士22年的經歷。
「當我在秘魯擔任傳教士和主教時，我親眼目睹了普世傳教節所展現的信仰、祈禱和慷慨如何改變整個社區。」
傳教區和教區的許多傳教宗徒——梵蒂岡將他們歸類為「傳教士」，因為他們要麼太年輕，要麼太貧窮，要麼遭受迫害而無法自給自足——有時無法相信世界各地的人們如此關心他們，為他們祈禱並為他們做出犧牲。
即使在物質援助尚未抵達，無法幫助他們建造聖堂、小聖堂、學校、教理中心、神學院和培育中心，也無法承擔教會機構運營的基本費用之前，他們就已接收天主教兄弟姊妹在天主面前為他們代禱、幫助他們信仰成長所展現的共融精神所感動。前主教Robert Prevost（指教宗本人）在秘魯奇克拉約教區和偏遠地區就親身體驗了這種具有變革意義的共融。
教宗良隨後要求牧者和教區信眾優先考慮每年的這一天，為傳教士祈禱並提供支持。
「我呼籲全世界每個天主教堂區參與普世傳教節。你們的禱告和支持將有助於傳播福音，支持牧靈和教理講授項目，幫助建造新聖堂，並關懷傳教區弟兄姊妹的健康和教育需求。」
儘管普世傳教節已列入教會年曆，教宗知道，在某些地方，神父們對此隻字不提，只是把它當作一個普通的主日來慶祝。他們在講道或信眾祈禱中不提及它。他們也不在堂區通告中推廣它。有時他們甚至不進行募捐，而這是教會法典（791）中規定的唯一普世募款。 （每年六月的聖伯多祿募捐，以及在耶穌受難日為聖地募捐，這並非教會法典的要求，而是由教宗敕令設立的。）
教宗良在他的影片中特別呼籲每個堂區參與。在禮儀中強調普世傳教節的一個好方法是，神父們可以利用這一天舉行羅馬彌撒經書背面為萬民傳播福音而編寫的奉献彌撒，其中有為教會傳教成果而作的優美禱文，以及各種提醒我們作為共融中的傳教門徒身份的經文。
強調普世傳教節重要性的另一個清晰方式是在彌撒開始前播放教宗的短片。任何看到和聽到教宗前所未有的求助呼籲的人，都不會認為普世傳教節只是普通的星期日。
在視頻訊息的最後，教宗良將今年的普世傳教節與希望禧年聯繫起來，並提醒我們基督賦予我們的使命。
「今年 10 月 19 日，當我們一起反思聖洗聖召，成為『萬民中的希望傳教士』時，讓我們重新致力於將我們的希望耶穌基督帶到地極這一甜蜜而快樂的任務。」
當我們為他的呼籲得到回應而祈禱時，他以他特有的感激之情結束了演講：「感謝你們為我所做的一切，助我幫助世界各地的傳教士。願上主保佑你們！」
身為美國宗座傳教善會的總監，我負責協調梵蒂岡普世傳教節的募款工作，在任職的第一年，我就親眼見證了教宗良所言非虛。世界各地的許多傳教區完全依賴信友的禱告和慷慨捐贈。他們感到鼓舞，因為我們了解他們的存在，我們沒有忘記他們，我們願意幫助他們。
在我走訪傳教區並與傳教士、主教、神父、修道者、傳教員和信徒交談的過程中，我看到許多傳教教區僅靠普世傳教節募捐的「非常規補助」維持生計——通常每年只有4萬美元左右。這比美國一個中等規模天主教教區的月預算還要少。我還看到一些聖堂建在變電站裡，否則需要幾十年的籌款，而通過普世傳教節募捐提供的「非常規補助」，僅用了1萬美元就建成了聖堂。
我遇到的傳教區裡的絕大多數神父根本沒有工資，只能靠從國外寄來的彌撒津貼生活——為逝去的親人、生病的家人或特殊意向而主持彌撒時，他們會收到一小筆謝金。這意味著每天5到10美元，如果神父們夠幸運，能收到的彌撒津貼，其中大部分會用於滿足託付給他們的貧困家庭的龐大需求。一位傳教樞機告訴我，和他的神父們一樣，他唯一的收入來自主持彌撒的津貼，其中85%用於滿足教會和窮人的需求。
需求巨大。 20年前，美國教會在普世傳教節募款的金額可能超過6,000萬美元。去年，我們籌集了大約2000萬美元。捐款減少的部分原因是彌撒出席率下降。另一個原因是電子捐款，因為「第二次」募款的用途並不總是明確，所以教友通常會提前很多就向教會捐出固定金額。
另一個原因是，一些堂區完全取消了第二次募捐，通常只將第一次募捐的一小部分用於教區、教會和教宗應得的募款。另一個原因可能是，人們並不真正了解他們的錢的去向，並認為透過支持講道者所在的社區或教區，他們已經幫助了大多數教區每年的傳教合作募捐呼籲。
無論原因為何，傳教區和教會確實依賴美國天主教徒的慷慨捐贈。即使捐款只有2000萬美元，美國教會仍佔全球1124個教區和傳教區募集善款總額的三分之一，這些教區和傳教區由教宗透過福音傳播部管理。
對傳教迫切需要的關注，是教宗良除了在年初教宗方濟各預先撰寫的普世傳教節文告之外，還發出前所未有的視頻呼籲的原因之一。
毫無疑問，這位來自美國的首位基督代表，希望他的美國天主教同胞能對我們遍布全球的兄弟姊妹們給予特別慷慨的回應。這樣，我們所有人，就像那位來自芝加哥、如今領導著基督在世上大家庭的奧斯定會士一樣，都能忠實地履行我們的使命，成為「在萬民中傳播希望的傳教士」。
羅傑‧蘭德里蒙席是麻省瀑河城教區的神父，也是宗座傳教善會的美國總監。他每週末會在EWTN電台主持《Conversations with Consequences》節目。
‘Help Me Help Missionaries’: Pope Leo’s Historic Video Appeal
COMMENTARY: As the Church marks World Mission Sunday on Oct. 19, the Pope links the collection to the Jubilee of Hope and to each Christian’s baptismal call.
A teenage girl makes a cross with a palm during the Palm Sunday Mass at Christ the King Catholic Church in Ibadan, Oyo, Nigeria, on March 24, 2024. (photo: Tolu Owoeye / Shutterstock)
Msgr. Roger Landry CommentariesOctober 14, 2025
Earlier this week, Pope Leo did something no pope has ever done. He recorded a video message for World Mission Sunday, making a direct appeal to Catholics across the world to “help me help missionaries across the world.”
The video is a little over a minute long, making it easy to share on social media, in parish and diocesan email blasts, on websites and other means. But it’s particularly apt to be shown before Masses on World Mission Sunday, Oct. 19, the day each year when Catholics across the globe pray for missionaries, for those to whom the missionaries are bringing the Gospel, and for greater missionary fire among all the baptized.
The Pope’s message, which was recorded in English, Spanish and Italian and likewise has English versions with French and Portuguese subtitles, begins by reminding everyone of the importance of World Mission Sunday and how all the faithful are summoned to pray as one to the Harvest Master for the laborers the harvest needs and for the success of that lifesaving harvest (Matthew 9:38).
“Dear Brothers and Sisters,” the Holy Father says, “on World Mission Sunday every year, the whole Church prays, united, particularly for missionaries and the fruitfulness of their apostolic labors.”
He recalls his own experience for 22 years as an Augustinian missionary.
“When I served as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru, I saw first-hand how the faith, the prayer and the generosity shown on World Mission Sunday can transform entire communities.”
Many of the faithful in the missionary territories and dioceses — categorized by the Vatican as “missionary” because they’re either too young, too poor, or too persecuted to be self-sustaining — sometimes cannot believe that those across the world care for them enough to be praying for them and sacrificing for them.
Even before material help arrives to assist them in building churches and substation chapels, schools and catechetical centers, seminaries and formation houses, and underwrite the essential costs of running Church institutions, they are moved by the solidarity that their Catholic brothers and sisters show by interceding for them before God and contributing to their growth in faith. The former Bishop Robert Prevost experienced that transformational solidarity in the Diocese of Chiclayo and in the remote areas of Peru.
Pope Leo then asks pastors and parishioners to prioritize this annual day of prayer and support for the Missions.
“I urge every Catholic parish in the world to take part in World Mission Sunday. Your prayers, your support will help spread the Gospel, provide for pastoral and catechetical programs, help to build new churches, and care for the health and educational needs of our brothers and sisters in mission territories.”
Even though World Mission Sunday is on the Church’s annual calendar, the Holy Father knows that in some places, priests make no mention of it and celebrate it as if it were just another Sunday in Ordinary Time. They make no mention of it in the homily or the prayers of the faithful. They don’t promote it in their parish communications. Sometimes they don’t even take up the collection, which is the only universal collection mandated in the Church’s canon law (791). (The annual collections for Peter’s Pence, normally in June, and for the Holy Land on Good Friday, are not required in canon law but were instituted by papal decree).
In his special video, Pope Leo is asking every parish to participate. One great way to emphasize World Mission Sunday liturgically would be for priests to take advantage of the option to celebrate on this day one of the votive Masses for the Evangelization of Peoples found in the back of the Roman Missal, which have beautiful prayers for the fruit of the Church’s mission and various reminders about our identity as missionary disciples in communion.
Another clear way to emphasize the importance of World Mission Sunday would be to show the Holy Father’s short video before Mass begins. No one seeing and hearing the Holy Father’s unprecedented appeal for help will ever be able to think that World Mission Sunday is just another Sunday.
At the end of the video message, Pope Leo links this year’s World Mission Sunday with the Jubilee of Hope and reminds us of the mission Christ has entrusted to us.
“This October 19, as we reflect together on our baptismal call to be ‘missionaries of hope among the peoples,’ let us commit ourselves anew to the sweet and joyful task of bringing Christ Jesus our Hope to the ends of the earth.”
He finishes with his characteristic gratitude as we pray about our response to his appeal: “Thank you for everything you will do to help me help missionaries throughout the world. God bless you all!”
As the national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the USA, responsible for coordinating for the Vatican the World Mission Sunday collection, I have been able to witness during my first year on the job the truth of what Pope Leo says. So many of the missionary territories around the world totally depend on prayers and generosity of their brothers and sisters in the faith. They are buoyed that we know they exist, that we haven’t forgotten them, and that we want to help them.
In my visits to the missions and my conversations with missionaries, bishops, priests, religious, catechists and faithful, I have seen how many missionary dioceses survive exclusively on the “ordinary subsidy” — which is normally only about $40,000 annually — they receive from the World Mission Sunday collection. That is less than the monthly budget of a mid-size Catholic parish in the U.S. I’ve seen churches built in substations, which otherwise would take decades of fundraising, for only $10,000 through “extraordinary subsidies” made possible by the collection.
The vast majority of priests in the missions I met receive no salary at all and survive only on Mass stipends sent from abroad — a small contribution for a Mass celebrated for a deceased loved one, a sick family member, or a special intention. That means $5 to $10 a day, from which most goes to the greater needs of poor families entrusted to them, if the priests are fortunate enough to receive Mass stipends. One missionary cardinal told me that like his priests, his only income is from the stipends for the Masses he celebrates, and that 85% of that goes to the needs of the Church and the poor.
The needs are vast. Twenty years ago, the Church in the United States might raise more than $60 million for the World Mission Sunday collection. Last year we raised about $20 million. Part of the reason for the decline has to do with lower Mass attendance rates. Another has to do with electronic giving, because it’s not always clear what the “second” collection is for and so parishioners give a standard amount, normally well in advance.
Another reason is because some parishes have eliminated second collections altogether and normally just give a small percentage of the first collection to whatever diocesan, national and papal collection is supposed to be taken up. Another may be because people don’t really know where their money goes and deem they’ve already helped the missions through supporting the community or diocese of the preacher for most parishes’ annual missionary cooperative appeal.
Whatever the reasons, missionary territories and dioceses really do depend on the generosity of American Catholics. Even at $20 million, the Church in the U.S. still constitutes one-third of all that is raised throughout the globe for the 1,124 missionary dioceses and territories under the care of the Holy Father through the Dicastery for Evangelization.
Concern for the urgent needs of the missions is one of the reasons why Pope Leo has made an unprecedented video appeal in addition to the World Mission Sunday Message Pope Francis wrote in anticipation at the beginning of the year.
Without question, the first Vicar of Christ from the United States is hoping to find a particularly generous response from his fellow American Catholics for our brothers and sisters across the globe. This is a way that all of us, like the Augustinian from Chicago who now leads Christ’s family on earth, can faithfully live out our vocation to be “missionaries of hope among the peoples.”
Msgr. Roger Landry Monsignor Roger Landry, a priest of the Diocese of Fall River (MA), is National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies. He can also be heard on EWTN radio’s Conversations with Consequences every weekend.