More than 22 million people in over 90 countries pray each month around the same intention – the one the Pope puts forward. They don’t belong to the same organization or follow the same program, but are united across vastly different contexts – parishes, shrines, prayer groups, religious communities – in orienting their prayer and their lives toward the same horizon.

The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network has new General Regulations – the document that defines the network’s identity and mission. They were officially promulgated on March 19, the feast of St Joseph. As Father Arturo Sosa, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, noted in his letter to the whole Society, “The celebration of the feast of St Joseph, patron saint of the Society of Jesus, is a fitting occasion for the publication of the new General Regulations of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (PWPN), a pontifical apostolic work entrusted to the Society of Jesus.”

The document marks a new stage in a long process of renewal. What began in 2010 as an effort to renew the Apostleship of Prayer has gradually reshaped it into a global spiritual network serving the Pope’s mission. The definitive statutes were approved by Pope Francis in July 2024; the General Regulations now, as Father Sosa writes, “clearly articulate the identity, nature and mission of this work”, as well as how the network is structured and led.

Forming Apostles of Compassion

At the heart of the new Regulations lies a clear reaffirmation of the mission: to form apostles of compassion – people capable of uniting their lives to Christ and opening themselves to the needs of the world.

This mission is deeply rooted in the spirituality of the Heart of Jesus. Jesuits are called to make “the love of Christ, symbolized in devotion to his Heart, the centre of our spiritual life, in order to proclaim the riches of Christ more profoundly and to affirm, in our mission, the primacy of charity.” Father Sosa writes. It is not an abstract devotion but a transformative encounter with Christ’s love, capable of renewing hearts and sending us out to serve a world wounded by hatred and violence. “In the Heart of Christ,” he writes, “we find the living synthesis between the service of faith and the promotion of justice as a source of transformation for persons, social relations and the use of natural resources.”

This mission of spreading devotion to the Heart of Jesus has deep roots in the Society’s history. The 23^rd General Congregation (1883) embraced it “with a spirit overflowing with joy and gratitude, the sweetest burden (munus suavissimum)”, and the 26^th General Congregation (1915) entrusted it in a particular way to the Apostleship of Prayer.

The PWPN carries forward that tradition, adapting it to today’s spiritual challenges. At its core is identification with the compassion of the Sacred Heart for the needs of the world and the Church, expressed in the Pope’s monthly intentions. Two key expressions of this tradition are the Way of the Heart, a spiritual program, and the Eucharistic Youth Movement, the network’s youth initiative.

Rooted in the tradition of the Apostleship of Prayer and reinterpreted in the light of the Spiritual Exercises, the Way of the Heart offers a path “from heart to Heart” that configures us to Christ in his mission of compassion for the world. It translates the treasures of devotion to the Sacred Heart “into a program for living as individuals and communities of faith”, guiding participants through nine steps – linked to the tradition of the first Fridays – toward deeper closeness to the Heart of Jesus and a share in his mission of reconciliation.

Present in more than 50 countries, the Eucharistic Youth Movement received strong papal encouragement at a private audience on 30 January 2026. Pope Leo XIV urged the PWPN “to foster an even greater participation in this Network, which unites diverse cultures, languages and charisms in the common mission”, adding:

“It is especially important to invite young people to take part so that they may form the next generation of intercessors for the needs of the whole world. Since many of them are searching for a more profound and personal relationship with the Risen Jesus, your Eucharistic Youth Movement can be a particularly fruitful path to help them to grow in a deeper intimacy with our Lord.”

A Mission Given to the Society

The publication of these Regulations is an invitation to deepen and promote the internal knowledge of Jesus symbolized in His Sacred Heart, and to acknowledge the apostolic responsibility this worldwide network of prayer places on the Society. The Regulations align the PWPN explicitly with the Universal Apostolic Preferences – the four global priorities the Society of Jesus has committed itself to worldwide.

As Father Sosa writes, the Regulations offer “a compass to navigate the mission entrusted to us”.