How papal prayer intentions are chosen, according to head of Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network

More than 22 million Catholics across the globe make up a network dedicated to praying daily for the challenges facing humanity and the Church, uniting their prayers with Pope Leo XIV’s monthly intentions.

The Popeʼs Worldwide Prayer Network is a pontifical foundation known for its Pray with the Pope campaign through which the Holy Father announces his monthʼs intention in a video message.

While the pope “has an endless list” of prayer intentions, he chooses 12 to offer for each month of the year, Father Cristóbal Fones, SJ, the international director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, explained in an interview with “EWTN News In Depth.”

In order to do so, the network will “help the pope to discern the intentions a year ahead,” Fones explained. “So we ask many people — all the dicasteries and our national directors — to give us some proposals, and we offer to him lots of them … about 20 of them.”

The Holy Father “takes some time to pray on these proposals” and then chooses the 12 intentions for the upcoming year in advance.

“So we published, for instance, the 2027 monthly intentions last February. So you can already know what we are about to pray for next year too,…