Dear PIME Family, Time flies! In just three days, Thanksgiving gives way to Advent. This season will be especially meaningful for me as I celebrate Advent and Christmas in Papua New Guinea, visiting our missionaries in some of PIME’s most remote communities. Papua New Guinea holds a special place in our history: it was PIME’s first mission. On April 10, 1852, the first PIME missionaries left London for the distant islands of Melanesia. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of PIME missionary Blessed John Mazzucconi. I am deeply grateful to join a pilgrimage to Woodlark Island, where he was martyred at just 29 years old. When PIME missionaries receive their missionary mandate, we are given a cross and recite a prayer that Blessed Mazzucconi wrote in his journal shortly before his death. “Blessed is that day when I will be granted to suffer greatly for such a holy and human cause, but even more blessed is that on which I will be found worthy of shedding my blood for it and of meeting death amid torments. My God, who inspire in me these resolutions so far beyond my feeble strength, sustain me with that omnipotent Spirit which first filled your holy Apostles.” As we receive the crucifix, the bishop says: “Here is the inseparable companion of your apostolic labor; your support in times of danger and difficulty; your comfort in life and in death.” Praying Blessed Mazzucconi’s words in the place where he gave his life will be a profound privilege and honor. More importantly, his sacrifice reminds me of the gift Jesus is to each of us - like Jesus, he gave his life. And he is inviting each of us to do the same. To face all the challenges and adversities of our life with Jesus, our inseparable companion and our comfort in life and in death. During this Advent season, the Lord invites us to take part in his plan of salvation. With your support, we can reach people who are hungry, thirsty, without clothing, or suffering illness in some of the world’s most remote places. This appeal continues to grow each year, and I am deeply grateful for your commitment. Our 2026 goal is to send $1.4 million to the missions. Please prayerfully consider a gift of $50 to help us make this goal possible and bring hope and love to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). With a grateful heart, I wish you a blessed Thanksgiving, a fruitful Advent season, and a very Merry Christmas. Thank you for being part of our PIME Family and for supporting our missionaries. You remain in my prayers; please pray for me as well. God bless you! Fr. Daniele

2026 began with our PIME U.S. Mission Center celebrating sending $1.3 million of crucial support to the missions in 2025, and another Mission Center + Missions trip to see your impact in Thailand and Cambodia. Fr. Daniele Criscione, PIME, and Michelle Regner traveled to isolated PIME Missions to get a look at the effect that your help has had on the “little” there: Burmese kids learning Thai after fleeing violence in Myanmar; a thriving Catholic community in Cambodia that survived the Khmer Rouge; and a boarding school full of PIME Sponsored kids in Thailand. (Tickets feature photos from this trip.) An annual tradition, the PIME Little Christmas Sweepstakes helps us to share the joy and hope that Christ brings us in Advent with those who are forced to live “little” lives where they are vulnerable or disadvantaged around the world! The suggested ticket donation for the sweepstakes is $2 per ticket, but no matter how much you give, the impact that you make will be significant. Any amount donated will help those marginalized to no longer feel “little! We will hold the PIME Little Christmas Sweepstakes Grand Prize drawing at the PIME U.S. Mission Center on December 18, 2026. As a friend of PIME, and in return for your generosity throughout the year, you will have the chance to win cash prizes ranging from $100 to $1,000! If you would like more tickets, call us at (313) 342-4066 or email info@pimeusa.org.

Your intentions will be prayed for during the May 14-22, 2026, Novena and after. Join Fr. Anand Talluri, PIME Missionary in Tunisia, to pray the Novena to Our Lady of Confidence daily on our PIME Missionaries YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram accounts. The Madonna della Fiducia (Our Lady of Confidence) is a beautiful portrait of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the Infant Jesus in her arms. Carlo Maratta (1625-1713), painted the image and donated it to Sr. Clare Isabella, the Abbess of the Poor Clares of Todi, Italy. Sr. Clare Isabella developed a sincere devotion to the Blessed Mother through this beautiful painting. She received a promise of consolation from the Blessed Virgin Mary for all who venerate her through the image. Mary's intercession is invoked through a short prayer: “Mater Mea, Fiducia Mea!” (My Mother, My Confidence!) The portrait of Our Lady of Confidence was eventually gifted to a seminary in Rome. More than 100 seminarians and alumni prayed to her before leaving for the front lines, invoking Mary's intercession praying, "My Mother, My Confidence!" Each of those soldiers returned home safely from the horrors of WWI, among their ranks was the future Saint Pope John XXIII. A vital advocate of the Missions of the Catholic Church, the Pope held a fervent love in his heart for PIME. He eventually donated his family home in Sotto il Monte to serve as a seminary for the Institute. Below is the promise of Our Lady of Confidence, taken from the consoling words of the Blessed Mother when she appeared to Sr. Clare Isabella: “The divine Lady deigned to reveal to me that every soul that confidently presents hisself/herself before this picture will obtain from her Divine Son the general pardon for all his/her sins. Moreover, my divine Lady assured me with the love of a true mother that she would grant a special tenderness to everyone who contemplated this picture.” Prayer to Our Lady of Confidence: O Mary Immaculate, the precious name of Mother of Confidence, with which we honor you, fills our hearts to overflowing with the sweetest consolation and moves us to hope for every blessing from you. If such a title has been given to you, it is a sure sign that no one has recourse to you in vain. Accept, therefore, with a mother’s love, our devout homage as we earnestly beseech you to be gracious to us in our every need. We pray that you will make us live in constant union with you and your divine Son, Jesus. With you as our guide, we are certain that we shall walk in the right way and that it will be our happy lot to hear the Lord say on the last day of our life those words of comfort: “Come, my good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord.” Amen.  

Dear PIME Friends,  We have entered the Lenten Season, and I am in Cambodia, Southeast Asia, visiting our missions. It is such a privilege to be here in Kdol Leu, where the pastor is Fr. Alessandro Motti, PIME. He is a good friend of mine; we worked together in Milan, and to see him here, speaking Khmer, and leading the community brings me so much joy. He loves his mission, he loves his people, and they love him. Walking a few yards from the church, there is a chapel, a very special chapel, where Fr. Pierre Rapin is buried. He is the only martyr in Cambodia that we have the remains of. On Tuesday, February 24th, we will celebrate the 55th anniversary of his martyrdom. After spending 16 years in Cambodia, three of those in Kdol Leu, he loved his Christians so much that when he was given the opportunity to leave, he decided to stay, despite the imminent threat from the Khmer Rouge. After 56 years, the parishioners still remember him as the good shepherd who, like Jesus, gave his life for his sheep.  After Fr. Rapin was killed, the Ksach Proceh/Kdol Leu mission was without a pastor for more than 20 years. The majority of Christians were Vietnamese, and they went back to Vietnam. The minority, the Khmer Christians, remained secretly Catholic, praying in their homes or in the silence of the rice fields. In 1992, Bishop Lesouef returned to Cambodia and immediately sought out old catechists to locate the Christians of Kdol Leu. After that, several priests, religious, and lay faithful have been working to rebuild a community that seemed to have been destroyed. Today, I look at the new rectory and the kindergarten that the PIME U.S. Mission Center helped to rebuild, and I feel like we are a part of this story. I look at the children and their smiles, and I am so happy, because they are safe. They can grow in their faith. I look around, and I see Fr. Alessandro, and I see a good shepherd. I am so proud of him. I look around, and I am grateful for you, because you make PIME! This Lenten Appeal is going to be a very important one because in 2025, we were able to surpass our goal, and we sent over $1.3 Million dollars to the missions. We are growing, and the good work that many good shepherds are doing needs your support. Our next goal is going to be sending $1.4 Million in 2026, and if you consider donating $50 to our 2026 PIME Lenten Appeal, I am positive that next year we will celebrate another tremendous accomplishment! I am here, at Fr. Rapin’s tomb, and I am praying for each of you. On behalf of all our PIME Missionaries and the people we serve, I want to wish you a very blessed Lenten Season full of Christ’s love. Yours, In Christ, Fr. Daniele Criscione PIME U.S. Mission Center Director