One in every seven people in the world lives today with a mental disorder, often in silence and marked by stigma and loneliness. For this reason, Pope Leo XIV has dedicated his prayer intention for the month of October to mental health ministry.
Through the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network – with the Pray with the Pope campaign – the Holy Father invites the faithful and people of good will to pray that the Church may become an open house, able to accompany without judging and without casting aside those who face difficulties with their mental health.
Holding a holy card of St Dymphna – patroness of people suffering from mental disorders, anxiety and depression, and also of mental health professionals – Leo XIV begins his prayer in the Pope Video this month by addressing the “God of life”, who knows the innermost depths of the human heart and those “silent wounds” that so often go unseen by anyone.
The pontiff presents to God our brothers and sisters who suffer alone with anxiety, depression or other mental illnesses, recalling that God calls them by name “with tenderness”.
He asks forgiveness for the times when the community “has looked the other way”, fueling stigma and discrimination, and prays that the Church may be an “open house”, a safe space that listens without judging and draws near without fear.
The prayer extends also to those who provide care – professionals, family members and volunteers – asking on their behalf for strength and compassion and concludes by invoking the Holy Spirit so that the Christian community may learn to integrate the care of mental health into the life and mission of the Church, thus becoming a “living sign” of God's mercy.
A reality affecting more than a billion people
The Pope's intention responds to a reality confirmed by international data. According to the Mental Health Atlas 2024 of the World Health Organisation (WHO), presented in September 2025, more than a billion people worldwide live with a mental disorder.
Despite this, global public spending on mental health continues to represent barely 2% of the health budget, a figure that has not changed since 2017. The global average of mental health professionals is only 13 per 100,000 inhabitants, with enormous inequalities between countries: high-income countries devote $65 per person annually to this area, compared with just a few cents in low-income countries.
Mental health ministry in dioceses
The international director of the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network, Father Cristóbal Fones, SJ, reflects on the meaning of this intention: “So many people around us have suffered or are suffering from a mental illness: people who, on more than one occasion, have been unable to express it, who have felt judged, misunderstood and without hope.
“That is why, as a Church, we come together to open our hearts to this reality and to pray together, throughout this entire month, for all of them and also for those who accompany them.”
The Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network recalls that numerous ecclesial institutions already accompany this reality: mental health ministries – such as the International Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers – Catholic universities, support and recovery groups, parishes and communities of support.
“In a world where individuals can easily feel forgotten and overlooked, we have a God who truly sees us and knows us”, said Bishop John Dolan of the Diocese of Phoenix in Arizona (United States).
In December 2022 he founded the trailblazing diocesan Office of Mental Health Ministry, one of the first of its kind in the nation, which has drawn international attention, including from the Vatican.
“Catholic mental health ministry is not about diagnosing, prescribing or treating. We accompany those walking a difficult road and help them encounter their God-given dignity”, he explained. “This ministry is about loving and accompaniment.”
Pope Leo directly addressed this topic recently. During the Prayer Vigil with young people in Barcelona on June 9 2026, in response to a young woman who had shared her experience with depression, the pontiff observed that it is important to become aware of how mental health is increasingly threatened in the context of societies that consider themselves advanced, and warned that this is a sign that something is profoundly wrong with a certain idea of progress that subjects people to pressures, expectations and tensions that compromise “fundamental balances”. Later, reflecting on pain and extreme loneliness, the pope stated: “We cannot do it alone”.
Pope Francis also invited people, through the Pope Video of November 2021, to pray for people who suffer from depression, saying: “Let us try to be close to those who are exhausted, to those who are desperate, without hope, often simply listening in silence, because we cannot go and tell someone: ‘No, life isn't like that. Listen to me, I'll give you the solution’. There is no solution.”
