Catholics in the Archdiocese of Chicago are part of a worldwide church whose members are all connected. To see that, they need look no further than Pope Leo XIV.

The pope, who was born in Chicago and raised in suburban Dolton, demonstrates the global nature of the church and the mission of all Catholics to be part of it, said Megan Mio, executive director of the archdiocese’s Global Mission Office.

Pope Leo ministered for years as a priest and bishop in two dioceses in Peru, before becoming prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in Rome, and holds Peruvian as well as U.S. citizenship.

Mio hopes people think of the missionary life of Pope Leo on World Mission Sunday Oct. 19, when parishes take up a second collection for the Pontifical Society of the Propagation of the Faith, part of the Pontifical Mission Societies that serve people all over the world.

Cardinal Cupich drew the connection between Pope Leo, a missionary from Chicago, and the role all Catholics have to play in supporting mission work in his letter for World Mission Sunday.

The theme for this year’s observation was chosen by Pope Francis before he died, “Jubilee Year: Missionaries of Hope Among All Peoples.”

Pope Francis “encouraged individual Christians and the entire Church to set out in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus and become artisans of hope for our troubled world,” Cardinal Cupich wrote. “We have seen this hope that does not in the election of Pope Leo XIV. He is a missionary who was sent from Chicago to the Augustinian mission world, to the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru and now to the Vatican, where he leads the worldwide Catholic Church.”

Leaders from the missions office said it’s important for Catholics to understand that all the baptized are called to be missionaries, even if not all are called to travel to places that are foreign to them.

First, they are called to pray for the missionary work of the church, said Sandra Bustamente, a member of the board of directors for the archdiocesan Society for the Propagation of the Faith, part of the Global Mission Office that collaborates with the Pontifical Mission Societies.

Local Catholics must also accept the prayers of their brothers and sisters around the world, said Bustamente, coordinator of children and family ministry in the Office of Lifelong Formation.

They also can support mission efforts financially, both through the World Mission Sunday collection and through the mission appeals that the office coordinates each summer, in which a missionary or member of a missionary community speaks at Masses to explain what they do and ask for support.

Father José del Carmen Mendez, pastor of St. Oscar Romero Parish and another board member, said prayers and financial support offer an important message of hope, and allow missionaries to offer more to the people the serve, whether in religious formation or in education, health care or social service.

“All of our work is about supporting the church around the world, especially in the places where there is the greatest need,” Mio said. “Our work focuses on prayer, support and education about that work. So we encourage people to be praying for their brothers and sisters around the world. We are always trying to raise awareness and educate about our brothers and sisters, what we have in common, what the needs are around the world, as well as offering opportunities for offering support.”

Mio pointed out that missionaries the office supports are often from the same region or country where they minister.

“Sometimes we think missionaries are only from North America or Europe and they are ministering in the global south,” Mio said. “That’s not always the case. There are certainly are missionaries like that; Pope Leo is a good example of that, someone from North America who went to minister in South America. But there are also all different vocations. Certainly I meet with bishops and priests and religious sisters. But I know a number of deacons who are amazing missionaries, as well as laymen and laywomen, and even families with young kids who have built connections with folks around the world, raise awareness and send support where needed. That work of missionaries can take many different forms.”

It also is a mutual relationship, Mio said.

“One of the ways we keep the church alive is to be missionaries in the local sense as well as on the global level,” she said. “When we engage with our neighbors around the world, it teaches us something about our own faith. It evangelizes us. So they are missionaries to us in that way. It can be life-giving. It can renew the church.”

Pope Francis focused much of his pontificate on the need for the church to become more missionary in nature, Mendez said, reminding the faithful that the church exists for the mission, not the other way around.

“The church doesn’t have a mission,” he said. “The mission has a church.”

For more information on the work of the Global Mission Office, visit wearemissionary.org.