Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network

[1][2] Founded in 1844 as the Apostleship of Prayer and renamed in 2016, this ecclesiastic service became a pontifical work in March 2018 when Pope Francis approved the new statutes.

[10] In 1861, Jesuit Father Henri Ramière provided a new dynamism for the Apostleship and framed this proposal in a missionary perspective: devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

[11] Between 1890 and 1896, Pope Leo XIII became interested in participating in this immense network of Catholics offering their lives and their dedication to spiritually supporting the mission of the Church.

He incorporated the Apostleship as a special mission of the Pope and entrusted the association to the Society of Jesus in the person of the Father General.

On Sunday 8 January 2017, during the Angelus in St Peters Square, Pope Francis used the new name for the first time when he urged the faithful the world over to unite with him in prayer.

[12]Examples of the Pope's monthly intentions include "true human fraternity" (January 2022)[13] and "the abolition of torture" (June 2023).

[14] In 2018, Pope Francis declared the PWPN, formerly known as the Apostleship of Prayer, a pontifical work with official headquarters in the State of the City of the Vatican.

[16] The Holy See announced on 3 December 2020 that the Pope had established the Worldwide Prayer Network Foundation as an entity with a juridical identity.