For more than 150 years, the popes of the Catholic Church have entrusted the faithful with a special mission of intercessory prayer — a spiritual tradition that continues to shape the life of the Church under Pope Leo XIV.

The practice began in 1879 when Pope Leo XIII introduced the monthly papal prayer intention and entrusted it to the Apostleship of Prayer, now known worldwide as the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network. Today, during the first year of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV has renewed that mission in a new digital age, inviting Catholics across the globe not only to pray for his intentions, but to pray alongside him.

According to Father Cristóbal Fones, International Director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, the pope’s monthly intentions unite millions of Catholics around the spiritual and humanitarian challenges facing the world today.

“This monthly prayer intention is a particular challenge facing humanity and the Church’s mission, around which many millions of hearts can unite to learn about this challenge, present it to the Lord, ask for His grace, and also be transformed in that process.”

Pope Leo XIV’s “Pray with the Pope” Initiative

Jesuit missionary Father Cristóbal Fones, who has led the international prayer network since 2025, launched Pope Leo XIV’s new “Pray with the Pope” initiative earlier this year. Continuing the tradition established by Pope Francis, who began recording monthly prayer videos in 2016, Pope Leo chose to deepen the spiritual intimacy of the initiative by personally leading moments of prayer before God.

Father Fones explained that Pope Leo’s approach creates a unique sense of closeness between the Holy Father and the faithful around the world.

“It’s very interesting to reflect on the new step Pope Leo XIV is inviting us to take, because even though we’ve been praying for the intentions entrusted to us by the Pope for nearly two centuries, this time—thanks to technology—we’re being invited to pray with him almost as if we were right there with him. And what he is doing is praying in his own chapel, in a very conversational and intimate way with the Lord, and inviting us to join him in that prayer.”

For many Catholics, the initiative has become both a spiritual resource and a renewed invitation to deepen their communion with the universal Church.

Catholic Families Rediscover the Pope’s Prayer Intentions

Among those inspired by the renewed prayer campaign is Laura Silva of Colombia, who first encountered the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network after learning about Father Fones’ Vatican appointment through his music ministry online.

For Laura, praying for the pope’s intentions was already a familiar tradition rooted in family life and devotion to the Rosary.

“Ever since I was a child, I’d heard my mom say that we should pray for the Pope’s intentions at the end of the Rosary. And many times I thought, well, what could his intention be? But I didn’t know there was something formal and structured behind it.”

Today, Laura joins members of her extended family each day through WhatsApp to pray the Rosary together, regularly incorporating Pope Leo XIV’s monthly prayer intentions into their spiritual routine.

“Every day, at a set time, we get together to pray. And then I started to kind of lead other intentions as well, not just strictly family ones. And there, in the Pope’s Prayer Network, I took the opportunity to include—now I include it every month, and several times a month I mention it, let’s say, as an intention for the rosary for that prayer—because I think it’s also a way to evangelize and make others aware of it […] In the Click to Pray app, the Pope also shares some additional prayer intentions for which he prays. So I take advantage of that because, even though sometimes they’re situations that are very far away, they give you a sense of how people are living in other countries.”

Pope Leo XIV’s Prayer Intention for Food Security

This month, Pope Leo XIV has asked the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics to pray that everyone may have enough food — a prayer intention that highlights growing concerns over global hunger and food insecurity.

According to Musamba Mubunga-Mtonga, Senior Advocacy Officer on Food Security for Caritas Internationalis, the pope’s focus on hunger elevates the issue beyond politics and economics, framing it instead as a profound moral responsibility for Christians worldwide.

“From the Caritas side, having the Pope make this call, it’s something that encourages us to really become a truly, like, a global community. And his call to Catholics being aware is beyond awareness itself, but it’s also a concrete call to action. So it’d be reducing food wastage at a personal level, supporting the local farmers that are heavily affected, advocating for just policies that really respond to food insecurity in a holistic and sustainable way, or just standing in solidarity with the people that are affected.”

The pope’s prayer intentions have increasingly reflected the defining priorities of his pontificate, including peace, solidarity, human dignity, and care for the vulnerable.

Prayer at the Heart of Pope Leo XIV’s Mission

Father Fones emphasized that Pope Leo XIV views prayer not as something passive, but as a transformative force capable of renewing hearts and changing the world.

“The power of prayer is immense. The Pope has emphasized this greatly. And the profound transformations our world needs today—particularly for peace—will not come about solely through political and diplomatic strategies; they require the conversion of our hearts, and that only happens when we open ourselves in prayer to the action of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I invite all of you to become part of this mission by joining the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network and learning each month what these prayer intentions are that he entrusts to us.”

As Pope Leo XIV continues the first year of his pontificate, his renewed emphasis on prayer, unity, and spiritual communion is helping Catholics across the world rediscover a centuries-old tradition — one that places the needs of humanity directly into the heart of the Church’s prayer.

Adapted by Jacob Stein