Every year, on the second Sunday of July, Catholic communities celebrate Sea Sunday. For the occasion, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (DPIHD), Cardinal Michael Czerny SJ, sends a message to chaplains and to all volunteers engaged in maritime ministry, as well as to all those whose professions and activities are connected with the sea. The theme chosen this year is “Beyond Cargo and Commerce: The Human Face of the Sea.”
The world’s daily life continues to pass through the planet’s seas, rivers, and waterways. Yet, behind global trade and the fishing industries are countless seafarers, fishers, and port workers whose labor sustains nations and connects peoples. Sea Sunday is the occasion on which the Church remembers these men and women not only for what they do, but for who they are as persons created in the image and likeness of God, endowed with inviolable dignity.
“A ship must never become a place of silent isolation or indifference, a modern Babel where people live side by side yet remain unseen and unheard.”
— Card. M. Czerny S.J., Message for Sea Sunday 2026
The message emphasizes how many maritime workers today experience growing loneliness. Their isolation is deepened through reduced shifts, increasingly brief shore leave, and armed conflicts that force them to remain on board. As Cardinal Czerny recalls, citing Pope Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas, no economic or technological system can reduce the human person to “data, a cog in a machine or a commodity” (no. 180).
The message also includes an ecological dimension: the oceans are part of creation entrusted to human care, and their protection cannot be separated from the defense of the dignity of those who work there. Protecting marine life, promoting sustainable practices, and safeguarding the rights of maritime workers are dimensions of one single commitment to the common good.
Drawing inspiration from the account of the calming of the storm (Mk 4:40), Cardinal Czerny invites the Church to be in the same boat, that is, to accompany, listen to, and defend the dignity of every seafarer and fisher. Through the Apostleship of the Sea (Opus Apostolatus Maris) and port chaplaincies around the world — known in many places as Stella Maris — the Church becomes a concrete presence alongside those who sail far from home.
“Care for the sea can never be separated from care for the human person. Protecting marine life, promoting ethical and sustainable practices, defending the dignity and safety of maritime workers, and fostering a spirit of global responsibility are not competing priorities but dimensions of a single moral commitment to the common good.”
— Card. Czerny, Message for Sea Sunday 2026