'Go and make disciples of all nations'

As the universal Church marks the 100th anniversary of World Mission Sunday Oct. 18, Fr. Paul Johnston is determined that Catholics will see the day as far more than another second collection. 

For the director of the Archdiocese of Toronto's Missions Office, the centennial celebration, along with the entire month dedicated to mission, is an invitation to reawaken a simple but often forgotten truth: that every baptized person is called to be a missionary themselves.

Celebrated this year under the theme “One in Christ, United in Mission,” Pope Leo XIV has already been open in expressing his gratitude to those who have supported the annual celebration since Pope Pius XI established World Mission Sunday 100 years ago.

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Just as the former pontiff sought to deepen Catholic awareness of the missionary task in every diocese and parish while keeping alive specific prayer for evangelization and missionary vocations through the work of the Pontifical Mission Societies, Johnston has set his mind on a similar education this year. 

“ We have to go beyond seeing World Mission Sunday as just another time when we donate, especially  within the Archdiocese of Toronto, where there is such great cultural diversity.  This brings about an awareness that we are not an enclosed Church, that we have to go outside and realize the richness we have all over the world,” he told The Catholic Register. 

While that call is nevertheless important, he stresses that everything about Mission Sunday is not new, but rather a return to the Church’s roots, best summed up by the Scripture of Matthew 28:19 — “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” 

“We are hoping to recreate an awareness of that.  This is what Jesus wanted, and you notice He says all nations, not just one nation or one corner (of the world). It is what religious congregations like my own are doing, but we all have to do it — it is not just the responsibility of those that are sent out, and I feel strongly about that,” Johnston said. 

Now working in the archdiocesan missions office and as the official link between the Archdiocese of Toronto and the Pontifical Mission Societies, Johnston, as a member of the Society of Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers), spent more than 30 years as a missionary priest. He served across Africa in places like South Africa, Ghana and Zambia, as well as Asia in the Philippines and India. 

Spending 22 years in different formation houses of his congregation, he also took pride in forming young men interested in their own missionary work. 

During that time, he came to find, in a greater way, how people everywhere share the same fundamental needs. 

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“ We want to be loved, cared for, to know that somebody is there to help us. These are universal things,” he said.

As an extension, those places that were once primary mission territories have now been sending their own priests to Canada in what Johnston calls “reverse evangelization,” a truth that the Church has both something to give and something to receive. As he explained, this mutual exchange is part of the beauty of the universal Church and truly what World Mission Sunday is about.

He said the modern missionary approach of observing, learning cultures and languages and making a genuine effort to be there for those seeking Christ has allowed him to receive more from the people he served than he ever gave.

It’s a feeling he hopes to help facilitate on the local level this year, having already sent out practical suggestions to priests via a four-part letter in an archdiocesan update, inviting parishioners to wear national dress and use intercessions or even readings in different languages on Oct. 18. 

The Pontifical Mission Societies Toronto office has also provided posters to all parishes in the archdiocese, as well as recommended prayers, Mission Rosary and general intercessions for Mass on the centennial day, with further materials available on their website.

As part of the collection on Sunday, parishes both in the Archdiocese of Toronto and around the world will donate to provide essential resources for communities to fund church construction, pastoral care, education and health care. Johnston shared that last year’s collection saw upwards of $500,000 from the archdiocese alone, $1.5 million across Canada. 

While he attests it would be nice to see more of that same generosity this year, Johnston is more hopeful that this special anniversary year can be a reminder of our baptismal call to be missionaries in everyday life, not just one Sunday of the year. 

As he’s seen firsthand, a great deal of that work is already being done right here in our archdiocese. 

“In just this pastoral centre, we have all these different offices, each doing missionary work. Whether that’s ShareLife in reaching out to the underprivileged, the Pastoral Mission Fund, Catholic Charities and many others, they're all missionary in their own right,” he said. 

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“I will keep coming back to the idea that we are all missionary from the very beginning. Wherever we are looking at what we can do, if we do all of it, then we are being missionary. If we all find and understand that for ourselves, I think the world can be a better place.” 

For more information, see missionsocieties.ca. 

A version of this article appeared in the October 18, 2026 issue of The Catholic Register with the headline "'Go and make disciples of all nations'".