EUROPE/ITALY - The number of Italian "Fidei Donum" priests who leave on mission continues to decline

Friday, 27 February 2026 mission local churches fidei donum vocations

photo Popoli e Missione

ITALY

2026-02-27
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Rome (Agenzia Fides) – Of approximately 31,000 Italian priests, 227 are currently serving as "Fidei Donum" missionaries abroad. Updated data published by the National Office for Missionary Cooperation of the Churches of the Italian Episcopal Conference confirms the ongoing decline in the number of Italian "Fidei Donum" missionaries.

In the 1990s, there were still around 600 "Fidei Donum" priests in Italian dioceses. As Annarita Turi reports to "Agenzia SIR," this decline has continued year after year since 2000. This decrease can be attributed, among other things, to "decreasing priestly vocations, the needs of dioceses that can no longer meet their pastoral requirements, and the rising costs of maintaining parish buildings and religious houses."

Of the 227 "fidei donum" priests sent from Italy, 64 are serving in Africa, 139 in the Americas, 16 in Asia, and 8 in Europe.

The dioceses of some smaller regions, such as Valle d'Aosta, Basilicata, and Molise, currently have no priests serving abroad. Most of the "fidei donum" priests from Italy, however, come from the dioceses of Lombardy and Triveneto regions.

The new "Ratio Nationalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis" for Italy, which came into effect in January of last year on a trial basis for three years, according to Annarita Turi, provides for a period of formation for seminarians outside the seminary.
Following this initiative, in 2025, "about ten seminarians left Italy, accompanied by "fidei donum" priests already serving there, and thus gained missionary experience." "Fidei donum" is the title of the last encyclical of Pope Pius XII, dated April 21, 1957. In light of the urgent needs of the young churches in Africa, Pope Pacelli, in his encyclical, asked the bishops of the older dioceses to send priests and lay missionaries as a “gift of faith” to support these ecclesial communities. Since then, the expression “Fides donum” has been used for priests who are sent from one diocese to other dioceses around the world in the spirit of communion and missionary cooperation. (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 27/2/2026)