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

“If we thought the year 2000 was a great jubilee, the 2000th anniversary of the Resurrection is going to be an even greater jubilee. It's the jubilee of the redemption of the world,” Lockert told The Catholic Register.

Lockert is the Canadian lead 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 project of evangelization. 

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

According to its website, the stated goal of Global 2033 is to “equip and mobilize 133 million Catholics to become Missionary Disciples.” 

The cultivation of Catholics burning with evangelical zeal is right within Lockert’s wheelhouse. For 23 years, he has served as president of Catholic Christian Outreach (CCO). Established on 17 college 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 backing of many high-profile Catholics. Cardinal Sean O’Malley is one of nine episcopal advisors and Former US Ambassador to the Holy See Mary Anne Glendon is both a sponsor and advisor.

Global 2033 is not just a North American initiative. From the Philippines to Poland, India to Israel, Capello has racked up the airmiles marshalling Catholic leaders to the cause.

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

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

Though engaged in a global alliance, Lockert is looking at the project with a distinctly Canadian lens. He spoke to the approximately 50 leaders about the cultivation of what he calls a “Canadian Catholic imagination.”

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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 cited a line of the former Governor General of Canada: "Tell me the character of a nation's young people and I will tell you the future of the nation." 

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

“Canada does sit, socially and economically, as a substantive nation worldwide. Everybody at least seems to love Canadians. We have distinct gifts and talents, we have an identity as Canadians; if we're invited into a greater imagination, we can think locally, nationally and beyond.”

For Lockert, there is a rich significance that the Nov 21 – Nov 22 Canadian gathering took place at the former Grand Seminary in Montreal. 

“This 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 place of formation for missionary priests who went all over Canada, all over the world.”

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

“The next 10 years represent a tremendous pathway of grace. You see different things dotted along that represent important anniversaries for new communities in Canada, including the 350th anniversary in 2031 of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe.”

But, Lockert insists, it isn’t just about the anniversaries.

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“This is an important decade for evangelization, for seeking to fulfill the great commission of Matthew 28,” the command of Jesus 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 St. John Paul II said, do not know Him well enough. This moment of collaboration really requires everyone, in order to reach everyone.”