INTERNATIONAL
World Mission Day 2022: Key figures and notable anniversaries – Catholic News Agency

By Andrea Gagliarducci
Rome Newsroom, Oct 21, 2022 / 12:00 pm
The missionary strength of the Catholic Church is hard to gauge by numbers or cast into the mold of statistics. Still, Catholic efforts worldwide are measured and reported across many missionary fields of endeavor, ranging from education to health.
According to figures published on the occasion of this year’s World Mission Sunday — this year celebrated on Sunday, Oct. 23 — the Catholic Church manages 72,785 nursery schools in the world attended by 7,510,632 pupils; 99,668 primary schools for 34,614,488 pupils; and 49,437 secondary schools for 19,252,704 pupils.
In the field of health care, the Church manages 5,322 hospitals; 14,415 dispensaries; 534 leper clinics; 15,204 homes for the elderly, the chronically ill, and the disabled; 9,230 orphanages; 10,441 kindergartens; 10,362 marriage counseling centers; 3,137 education or re-education centers; and 34,291 other institutions.
These global figures are a powerful witness to the strength of the Church’s missionary work.
World Mission Day — also known as World Mission Sunday — was established by Pope Pius XI in 1926. It is usually observed on the third Sunday of October.
This year the official theme is “You shall be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8).
Pope Francis in his message for Sunday described Christ’s words in the Acts of the Apostles as “the heart of Jesus’ teaching to the disciples.”
The pope also noted that 2022 marks several significant missionary anniversaries. It is the fourth centenary of the founding of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide, which oversaw the dramatic expansion of the Catholic world following its foundation by Pope Gregory XV.
The body is known today as the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
It is also the second centenary of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, founded in 1822 by the French laywoman Pauline Jaricot, who was beatified on May 22.
The body is the oldest of four Pontifical Mission Societies, an umbrella group of Catholic missionary societies under the pope’s jurisdiction.
A worldwide collection is held each year on World Mission Day for the societies, which consists of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Society of St. Peter the Apostle, the Society of the Holy Childhood, and the Pontifical Missionary Union.
The first three bodies were granted the title “Pontifical” 100 years ago, the pope observed in his message.
The Pontifical Mission Societies have the task of financially supporting missionary activity, starting with Blessed Pauline Jaricot’s idea of involving ordinary faithful in missionary work.
There are four Pontifical Mission Societies founded in the 19th century: the Pontifical Society of Missionary Childhood, founded in 1843 in France by Monsignor Forbin-Janson; the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith, founded by Jaricot; the Society of St. Peter the Apostle, founded in 1889 on the inspiration of Bishop Jules-Alphonse Cousin of Nagasaki for the formation of priests and put into practice by Stefanie and Jeanne Bigard; and finally the Pontifical Missionary Union, which is an association of clergy, religious, and laity created to stir in the Church a passion for the mission.
Today the mission has changed profoundly.
Western countries have shown less and less missionary zeal. Yet local dioceses are increasingly involved in some territories; there is an increasingly strong presence of local Pontifical Mission Societies in digital media; and there are more and more missionary families.
The Pontifical Mission Societies have the role of continuing to keep the missionary idea alive, with 120 national directions and many initiatives.
Catholic bishops and organizations across Africa are working hard to achieve full financial autonomy for local churches. For many, this is a difficult challenge, given the circumstances. For example, South Sudan is a country with significant needs and specific problems.
Christian communities in countries where they are but a small minority — Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India, for instance — need help regardless of their numbers or political issues simply because they are poor countries.
Church provinces and other communities of the faithful under the authority of a bishop — known as ecclesiastical circumscriptions — dependent on the Dicastery for Evangelization numbered 1,118 in the year 2020, the statistic says.
Most ecclesiastical circumscriptions entrusted to the dicastery are found in Africa (518) and Asia (483), followed by America (71) and Oceania (46).
As of Dec. 31, 2020, there were 1,359,612,000 Catholics worldwide — an overall increase of 15,209,000 people compared with the previous year.
The total number of bishops worldwide has almost stayed the same, at 5,363. On the other hand, there were 410,219 priests worldwide that year, which means a decrease of 4,117 priests compared with the previous year.
(Story continues below)
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The number of religious who are not ordained priests increased by 274 in the same period, reaching a total number of 50,569.
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INTERNATIONAL
Ocean census aims to discover 100,000 previously unknown marine species

Researchers have embarked on an ambitious global initiative to discover and record marine life hidden in the world’s oceans.
Ocean Census aims to identify 100,000 unknown species in the next 10 years, allowing scientists to better understand and protect the deep-sea ecosystem.
There are huge gaps in our knowledge of the ocean depths. Of the 2.2 million species believed to exist in the Earth’s oceans, only 240,000 have been described by scientists, according to the census.
Technological advances
It typically takes scientists at least a year to definitively describe a species post-discovery, but new types of technology are making it much easier for sea creatures to be studied in their natural habitat. These include tools like underwater laser scanning that can scan gelatinous creatures such as jelly fish that are hard to study on land.
“You can now look at (the creature) in the water column and see what the morphology is and study them in situ,” said Jyotika Virmani, the executive director of the Schmidt Ocean Institute in Palo Alto, California, which will participate in the project.
“What we’re moving towards is a place where we can actually perhaps even do taxonomic identification in the water column instead of bringing everything back to land. And that’s really exciting and will make things move a lot faster.”
All living organisms, including humans, disperse genetic material into the environment, and the project will also make use of new and accessible techniques to sample waterborne DNA to detect and track species.
While many of the species discovered are likely to be on the smaller end of the scale, Virmani noted that the world’s longest sea creature was only discovered in 2020 off the coast of Western Australia — a 150-foot stringlike animal known as a siphonophore.
Ocean Census will also help to identify how marine ecosystems are responding to the climate crisis, and assess how marine life could adapt to a warmer climate.
The project is being led by Nekton, a UK-based marine science and conservation institute, and funded by The Nippon Foundation, a nonprofit foundation based in Japan.
Over the next decade, dozens of expeditions to the ocean’s biodiversity hotspots will search for new species involving divers, submarines and deep-sea robots. The project also hopes to involve private vessels and individuals. The data and information gathered will by openly accessible for scientists, policymakers and the public for noncommercial use.
INTERNATIONAL
3 tips can help you save if you’re living paycheck to paycheck, personal finance expert Suze Orman says

When you’re living paycheck to paycheck, it can be tough to find money to save.
That was the situation one audience member, Natalie, wrote in about ahead of CNBC’s Women & Wealth event on Tuesday. While grappling with high childcare and housing costs, Natalie is barely breaking even, she wrote, which makes finding money to set aside for big goals like retirement difficult.
A recent CNBC Your Money Financial Confidence Survey, conducted in partnership with Momentive, shows that she is not alone. More than half, or 58%, of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, according to the March results.
If you find setting money aside difficult, it’s a sign that it’s time to change your lifestyle, personal finance expert Suze Orman said.
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“You have to strike the word ‘can’t’ out of your vocabulary,” Orman said in response to the audience query.
Rather, people should draw up a financial to-do list right now that includes getting out of credit card debt, having an eight- to 12-month emergency fund and funding their retirement accounts, Orman said.
That’s as many experts, including Orman, say a recession could be coming.
But whether there is a recession or not, you need to be prepared that an unexpected event — like an illness, accident or layoff — could set you back, Orman said.
“The most important thing, really, for everybody to understand about their money … is that you have got to live a life below your means, but within your needs,” Orman said.
Several tips can help you get started.
1. Make yourself a ‘No. 1 priority’
Portrait of an elegant man in a suit preparing for an important day at work
Daniloandjus | E+ | Getty Images
People who think they are living paycheck to paycheck likely have something they are doing with money that they should not be doing, Orman said.
For example, if you go out to eat rather than eating in, that’s $10 you could be putting into a Roth individual retirement account — an account for post-tax contributions towards retirement.
“You have to make yourself a No. 1 priority,” Orman said.
That means you do what you have to do in order to meet your financial goals, she said, even if it means taking on more than one job or cutting back on discretionary expenses.
You should be always be funding your retirement accounts, Orman said.
2. Automate your savings
To get into the habit of setting money aside, it’s best to automate the process, Orman said.
So whether you choose to do $50 a month or $100 a month, by setting aside money before you see it in your paycheck, “you will find that you do not miss it,” Orman said.
INTERNATIONAL
Inside MT BARBER: The Rising Star in the Barber Shop Industry

Gustavo Olmedo Romero, a professional barber from Oaxaca, Mexico, is making waves in the world of barbering with his brand MT BARBER. Born on September 1, 1986, Gustavo migrated to the United States at the age of 15 in search of a better future. He settled in New Brunswick for two years before moving to Delaware, where he worked multiple jobs, including dishwasher, cook, and gardener.
This period of his life was crucial in shaping his work ethic, and Gustavo is now living his dream.
At the age of 24, Gustavo started learning the profession that had fascinated him since childhood. He taught himself through videos and practice sessions with his friends, and in 2010, he began working in a barber shop where he worked for seven years, honing his skills and becoming a high-level barber. In 2017, Gustavo opened his first barber shop called MT BARBER SHOP, where he employed 12 barbers. Two years later, he opened his second shop with the same name, adding 12 more barbers to his team and expanding his brand.

According to Gustavo, the world of barbering is an excellent profession to learn and grow in, but it requires a lot of discipline and constant learning because haircuts and styles are continually evolving. Gustavo has also worked with professional soccer players, including José Andrés Martínez and Gelmin Rivas. His vision is to expand his brand nationally and internationally, and he knows that it will take a lot of hard work and effort, but he is determined to achieve his goals.
MT BARBER’s Instagram handle is @mexican_talent, and you can book an appointment on their website mtbarbershop.booksy.com. Gustavo Olmedo Romero is changing the world of barbering with his brand, MT BARBER, and he is an inspiration to many aspiring barbers.
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