More than 22 million Catholics across the globe make up a network dedicated to praying daily for the challenges facing humanity and the Church, uniting their prayers with Pope Leo XIV’s monthly intentions. Source: National Catholic Register.
The Popeʼs Worldwide Prayer Network is a pontifical foundation known for its Pray with the Pope campaign through which the Holy Father announces his monthʼs intention in a video message.
While the Pope “has an endless list” of prayer intentions, he chooses 12 to offer for each month of the year, said Fr Cristóbal Fones, SJ, the international director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.
In order to do so, the network will “help the Pope to discern the intentions a year ahead,” Fr Fones said. “So we ask many people – all the dicasteries and our national directors – to give us some proposals, and we offer to him lots of them … about 20 of them.”
The Holy Father “takes some time to pray on these proposals” and then chooses the 12 intentions for the upcoming year in advance.
“So we published, for instance, the 2027 monthly intentions last February. So you can already know what we are about to pray for next year, too, so that we can have some time to make the translations, to create the materials in Indonesian, Hindi, Swahili, Guarani, and so on.”
Pope Leo has continued the tradition of Pope Francis, who recorded the first video of the monthly intentions in 2016, though the current pontiff has put his own take on it.
Pope Leo is “not only asking us to pray but praying himself for the monthly intention and inviting us to join him in prayer,” Fr Fones said. “Thatʼs why we call this campaign ‘Pray with the Pope’, because heʼs the first one interceding for the needs of humanity, and he is inviting us through this campaign to do it with him”
“Some people may watch the video and participate with him by praying. Others can do it [on] their own. But the important thing is to be united in this network of hearts – compassionate hearts for the needs of the world.”
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How papal prayer intentions are chosen, according to head of Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (By Tessa Gervasini, EWTN News via National Catholic Register)
