A few days after Pope Leo XIV received in Rome all the national directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies gathered for their General Assembly, José María Calderón, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Spain, presented the 2025 Annual Report, highlighting the following statistic: Spain is the second-largest contributor to the institution worldwide, trailing only the United States. The Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) operates in four areas: awareness-raising, training, support for missionaries, and financial assistance, and has nearly 9,800 Spanish missionaries on its roster, of whom 5,335 are currently active.
One of them is Father Alejandro Canales, a Comboni missionary who has been in Chad for 48 years: “Wherever there is need, I will be there,” was his motto when he began his missionary work. He arrived in the African country in 1978, at the age of 30, and found a situation marked by insecurity, a fledgling Church, and tiny communities. His first priority was to train catechists: “There can be no Christian community without someone to sustain it.” Over time, the work flourished: the four dioceses that existed then have grown to eight today, with 150 major seminarians and a local clergy that is becoming increasingly established.
During this past Easter alone, the diocese where Canales works baptized 3,500 adults and young people. We need priestly vocations to accompany those who are baptized, and a rigorous catechumenate—lasting four years—to prepare them. “The proclamation of the Gospel brings about social transformation,” he affirmed.
The presentation also took place during a commemorative year: in 1926, Pope Pius XI established World Mission Sunday. The acronym “Domund” was coined by the first national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (OMS) in Spain, the priest from Vitoria, Ángel Sagarminaga, whose centennial is also being celebrated this year.
In addition to other statistical data, regarding training, Calderón highlighted the 78th Missionology Week held in Burgos and a Zoom course on missionology that brought together 140 students from around the world, including a Spanish nun in Papua New Guinea who would get up at three in the morning to attend classes.
