October 2026: Praying with the Pope for Mental Health Ministry

Each month the Holy Father asks the whole Church to pray for one intention. For October 2026, Pope Leo XIV asks for prayer for mental health ministry: that it be established throughout the Church, and that it help to overcome the stigma and discrimination suffered by people with mental illness.

The Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network has sent out the month's prayer and material, and the Supreme Secretary has asked that it go to every member of the Order.

The Pope's prayer

The Pope sets out each intention in a short film, The Pope Video. In October's he holds a holy card of St Dymphna and prays for those who live with anxiety, depression or other mental illness, often alone and unseen. He asks forgiveness for the times the Christian community has looked the other way, and prays that the Church will be an "open house" that listens without judging. He prays too for the professionals, families and volunteers who care for them.

Why it is asked

The World Health Organization reckons that nearly one person in seven lives with a mental disorder: more than a billion people. Many of them carry it in silence.

St Dymphna

Tradition holds that Dymphna was born in Ireland in the seventh century, the daughter of a king of Oriel, and that she was martyred at Geel, in what is now Belgium. She is the patron of those who suffer from mental illness. A church was built in her honour at Geel in 1349, and the town has taken people with mental illness into its own homes for more than five hundred years.

Pray with the Pope

The Holy Father asks the faithful to pray for this intention through the month. His prayer, and the film in which he says it, are on the Network's site: Pray with the Pope. The film is also on YouTube.

For councils and parishes, the Network's tool kit carries the prayer in more than twenty languages, the official images and a poster.

Samaritans can be reached free, day or night, anywhere in Ireland, on 116 123.