French missionaries were much in demand. Pauline's own brother, Phileas, was a missionary priest. As Bishop Jean-Louis Cheverus, our first bishop here in Boston was returning to France after establishing the Diocese of Boston, one of his peers was about to make a life-changing mission trip. Bishop Charles Forbin de Janson of Nancy, France sailed across the ocean, landing in New York. He spent two years visiting the Dioceses of Baltimore and New Orleans, traveling as far as Canada on horseback. He preached retreats, gave parish missions, and celebrated Mass for people who waited for months for a priest to pass by. The bishop gathered children together for faith formation and religious instruction.

When he returned to France, he met with an old friend, Pauline Marie Jaricot, to discuss the poor conditions faced by the faithful of the United States, especially the children. The bishop shared his life-long dream of wanting to help children in the missions. He was convinced that children themselves, though needing physical care, were capable of participating in the Church's mission by sharing their own faith and love. Somewhere during that conversation, the Missionary Childhood Association, the second Pontifical Mission Society, was born.

In 1843, after his eye-opening mission trip to the United States, Bishop Charles Forbin de Janson started appealing to the children of France to pray one Hail Mary every day and sacrifice to help the children of the missions by earning their own funds. They did odd jobs, gave up treats, or went without presents so that children in the United States, China, and other mission lands could receive the gift of faith through missionaries. He built this Catholic mission agency with children as the protagonists in order to build on the work of Pauline Marie Jaricot and her growing society, the Propagation of the Faith.

Today, Missionary Childhood continues to follow the plan laid out by Forbin de Janson -- the motto is still "children helping children." Young people in Catholic schools and parish faith formation programs are taught about the great needs of the world's poorest children and are invited to pray and offer their sacrifices so that children in the missions can know that God loves them. Those gifts support missionaries who are then able to share the corporal works of mercy along with the spiritual ones with mission children. These little ones then have a chance to grow up and become the people of God's intention.

Cardinal Seán has said, "It is not only the children of the missions who benefit from the work of this Church Society. Our children grow too: by giving of themselves, by learning of the world around them, and by finding that through their faith, they can make a real difference in the world."

Missionary Childhood is present wherever the Catholic Church is alive, whether a diocese is mission sending, like Boston, or mission receiving, like the 1,121 mission territories and dioceses currently supported through donors around the world.

To learn more about involving your school or parish in the programs of this official mission agency of the Church for children, please email mheil@propfaithboston.org or call 617-779-3871.