Stories

When MISSION Magazine was first published in 1951, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen often turned to children to help explain something essential about the life of the Church.

He invited them to pray, to make small sacrifices, and to give what they could for other children around the world. A coin saved, a treat forgone, a prayer offered—these were not symbolic gestures, but real acts of missionary charity.

The idea was simple, and remains so today: children are not only the future of the Church. They are part of its mission now.

The Missionary Childhood Association (MCA), one of the four Pontifical Mission Societies, continues to form children in that same spirit—inviting them to look beyond themselves and recognize that they belong to a Church that spans continents, cultures, and realities very different from their own.

That mission takes concrete form in places like Haiti.

In the Diocese of Jérémie, Father Jules Jean Claude describes a parish community where many children live in extreme poverty, including orphans and those displaced by violence in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Through support made possible in part by MCA, the parish provides free schooling, food assistance, and basic medical care to children in need. 

“It is extremely important to teach, accompany, and transmit the faith to the younger generations,” he writes, “in order to prepare the future of the Church and ensure the future of society.” 

That same commitment is visible in India, where Catholic institutions often become a lifeline for children from marginalized communities.

At Bala Jyothi Boarding in the Diocese of Khammam, nearly 300 children—many from Dalit and tribal backgrounds—receive education, food, and care that would otherwise be out of reach. 

The school not only provides academic instruction, but also faith formation and character development, helping children build a future that can transform their own lives as well as those of their families and communities.

In the same diocese, the Karunya Community Home offers a second chance to children who have dropped out of school—often due to poverty or social pressures. 

There, they receive education, meals, medical care, and the support needed to rediscover their dignity and potential.

These are not isolated efforts.

Across the world, the Missionary Childhood Association supports projects that provide children with access to education, health care, and faith formation—meeting both their material and spiritual needs.

But just as importantly, MCA forms children everywhere to become aware of these realities.

It teaches them that their faith connects them to other children they may never meet—but for whom they can pray, sacrifice, and give.

That formation begins in small ways.

A classroom prayer for children in another country.
A small offering collected through the Mite Boxes or initiatives such as the Little Flower Dress Down Day.
A growing awareness that the Church is larger than one parish, one city, or even one nation.

In a world where it is easy to remain focused on what is near, the Missionary Childhood Association offers something different: a way to form hearts that are attentive, generous, and open to the needs of others.

What Archbishop Sheen understood—and what the Church continues to affirm—is that missionary discipleship is not something learned later in life. It begins early, through habits of prayer, sacrifice, and charity.

And from those small beginnings, something lasting is formed.

The mission of the Church is sustained not only by those who go, but by those who learn, from a young age, to care.

And in that sense, the work of the missions begins not in distant lands—but at home.

A Place of Safety and Hope

At the Good Shepherd Youth Center in Chiang Rai, Thailand, girls from vulnerable and marginalized backgrounds are given something many of their peers have never known: safety.

Supported in part by a $6,000 grant from the Missionary Childhood Association, the center provides shelter, food, education, and spiritual formation for girls aged 10 to 18, many from ethnic minority communities in remote villages. 

Some arrive after experiencing violence or abandonment. Others come from families unable to provide for their basic needs.

For all of them, the center becomes a home.

“Your support not only meets the children’s basic needs but also brings them love, security, and hope for a better future,” writes Sister Anurak Chaiyaphuek of the Good Shepherd Sisters. That support came directly from children in the United States, who sacrificed their pennies—perhaps the equivalent of a cookie, a soda, or an ice cream—and put them in their Mite Boxes, to then be sent to the national office and directed toward projects like this one.

One of the girls, Annie, arrived after fleeing domestic violence with her mother. At the center, she was able to begin school for the first time and regain a sense of stability.

“I’m so happy to be here,” she shared. “I feel safe and have good food to eat. I can go to school now. I have hope and dreams for a better life.” 

Another young woman, Ah Mee, arrived unable to read or write. Today, she is studying at the university level and helping teach vocational skills to younger girls.

Her story, like many others, is a quiet testimony to what sustained care—and the support of the universal Church—can make possible.