Abundant possibilities for the Jubilee of the Resurrection

For Catholic Christian Outreach (CCO) President Jeff Lockert, the significance of 2033 cannot be overstated.

“If we thought the year 2000 was a great jubilee, the 2000th anniversary of the Resurrection will be an even greater jubilee. It is the jubilee of the salvation of the world,” Lockert said The Catholic Register.

Lockert is the Canadian leader for Global 2033, an international movement of Catholic leaders and apostolates mobilized to prepare for the jubilee year; not just as a single year of celebration, but as a 10-year evangelization project.

This is not “just a time to have a party,” Lockert said, “but a time to think about the grace that God is giving to the Church, in the world, at this time.”

According to its website, Global 2033’s stated goal is to “equip and mobilize 133 million Catholics to become missionary disciples.”

Cultivating Catholics burning with evangelical zeal is right in Lockert’s wheelhouse. For 23 years, he served as president of Catholic Christian Outreach (CCO). Established on 17 university campuses across Canada, CCO introduces young people to faith in Jesus through group studies.

The brainchild of American Henry Capello, founder of Youth Arise International and Caritas in Verite, Global 2033 has the support of many high-ranking Catholics. Cardinal Sean O’Malley is one of nine episcopal advisers and former US ambassador to the Holy See Mary Anne Glendon is both sponsor and adviser.

Global 2033 is not just a North American initiative. From the Philippines to Poland, from India to Israel, Capello has gathered his buzz rallying Catholic leaders to the cause.

In September, Capello was in Manila for the 2033 Global Leaders Summit. When Manila Archbishop Jose Cardinal Advincula addressed the leaders, he encouraged them to say, “First, go. Second, go together. Third, go with everyone.”

Most recently, Lockert and Capello were in Montreal to address a very small gathering of Canadians. For Lockert, it was an opportunity to “build friendship, share vision and catalyze collaboration towards 2033”.

Although engaged in a global alliance, Lockert views the project with a distinctly Canadian lens. He spoke to about 50 leaders about cultivating what he calls a “Canadian Catholic imagination.”

Lockert pointed to Georges Vanier, “one of my great heroes,” as an example of a civic leader who was both a wonderful Catholic and a passionate Canadian.

Lockert quoted a line by Canada’s former governor-general: “Tell me the character of a nation’s youth and I will tell you the nation’s future.”

To have a Canadian Catholic imagination means, according to Lockert, to “imagine possibilities both locally and nationally. Canadians and the Church in Canada have a special opportunity to be a gift to the world.”

“Canada stands, socially and economically, as a substantial nation in the world. Everyone at least seems to love Canadians. We have distinct gifts and talents, we have an identity as Canadians; if we are invited into a larger imagination, we can think locally, nationally and beyond.”

For Lockert, there is rich significance that the November 21-22 Canadian gathering was held at the former Montreal Grand Seminary.

“This is a gift of providence,” he said. “The original mission came here in the late 1600s to bring the faith, to nurture the faith. This was a training ground for missionary priests who went all over Canada, all over the world.”

Lockert jokes that “Catholics love an anniversary,” but adds that there is an urgency to move from the “ordinary” jubilee in 2025 to “what will be, I think, a great jubilee in 2033.”

“The next 10 years represent an extraordinary path of grace. You see various things dotted throughout that represent important anniversaries for the new communities in Canada, including the 350th anniversary in 2031 of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe.”

But, Lockert insists, it’s not just about anniversaries.

“This is an important decade for evangelism, to seek to fulfill the great commission of Matthew 28,” Jesus’ command to his disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations.”

If 2033 “is the 2000th anniversary of Jesus giving His disciples, the Church and us the Great Commission, then we have a lot of work to do in the next 10 years. Because there are many who do not know Him or, as Pope Saint John Paul II said, do not know Him well enough. This collaborative moment really requires everyone, to reach everyone.”