Meet Our Partners: Catholic Christian Outreach

This week we are featuring our partners at Catholic Christian Outreach. Founded in 1988 at the University of Saskatchewan by André and Angèle Regnier CCO was created in response to Pope St. John Paul II’s call for a “new evangelization.” A student movement dedicated to evangelization, CCO now serves universities across Canada.

President Jeff Lockert notes, “We challenge young adults to live in the fullness of the Catholic faith and we strive to build up students as leaders in the renewal of the world. Our founders André and Angèle Regnier started CCO in 1988 at the University of Saskatchewan with only a handful of students. It has since grown to serve thousands of students on campuses all across Canada.”

CCO is organized according to three foundational “pillars.” Indeed, “to proclaim, equip, and commission” remains the objective of each of CCO’s missionaries in campuses from coast to coast. Relationships are key to equipping students to live missionally within the spheres to which they are called. Notes Lockert, “These leaders go out to have an impact on the world both immediately, and after they graduate, in their families, their communities, their parishes, and their workplaces.”

As Canada’s sesquicentennial anniversary fast approaches, CCO continues to engage with students across Canada, seeing partnership with their community as a central part of marking this significant year. “This year is important to our organization because it gives us an opportunity to educate students on the history of faith in Canada, as well as the continued relevance of faith in our nation today. We’ve done this through collaborations and initiatives with the Faith in Canada 150 Campaign, by highlighting examples of men and woman of faith in our nation, and through events which draw attention to the important reality of faith in Canada.”  

This December, currentCCO students, staff, and alumni will gather together (as they do each twelfth month) to reflect on the year past and welcome in a new season together. Lockert observes that “at the end of December, CCO’s national student conference, Rise Up, will draw hundreds of young Canadians to Ottawa to close out the sesquicentennial year under a theme inspired by Canada’s motto taken from Psalm 72:8: ‘Dominion from sea to sea.’ It will give students from all parts of Canada the opportunity to visit the nation’s capital and reflect on our heritage of faith and our future.”

CCO continues to invest in building up the next generation of Canadian Christian leaders, seeing them as the key to a vibrant Canadian future. Reflects Lockert, “Former Governor General Georges Vanier was a man of deep Catholic faith and love for Canada. He once said, “Tell me the character of a nation’s young people, and I will tell you the future of the nation.” One of the greatest investments we can make for our country is in the faith and character of our young people. This is CCO’s mission.”

To learn more about the work of Catholic Christian Outreach, visit: https://cco.ca/