My story on the Companions of the Cross

Sadly, I misspelled Fr. Scott McCaig's last name in the piece.  Read the whole thing over at the B.C. Catholic/

OTTAWA (CCN) - When the Companions of the Cross (CC) met for the General Assembly Jan. 30-Feb. 3 in Cornwall, Ontario, the priests had their first chance to reflect on the impact of last year’s death of their founder, Father Bob Bedard.

“The passing of a founder, of a spiritual father in Christ is a watershed for any community in the history of the Church,” said CC Moderator Father Scott McQuaig, who was re-elected Feb. 3 for a second six-year term as the Order’s leader.

“The Lord really spoke a vision for life and spirituality and mission into the heart of Father Bob and this is what we’re called to live ourselves now,” he said. “The Church often speaks of the charism of the founder. Spiritual communities need to be faithful to that initial grace, that initial mission; we need to live that out.”

The Order’s 38 priests, who are based in Ottawa, Halifax, Toronto and Houston, Texas, never had an opportunity to get together to talk as brothers after Bedard’s Oct. 12 funeral, McQuaig said.

“A big part of what we did is talk about the spiritual patrimony passed on to us by Father Bob and what gifts we are meant to multiply, to pass on and incarnate.”

McQuaig described Bedard as a pioneer of the New Evangelization. Reading Pope Paul VI’s Apostolic Exhortation Evangelization in the modern world in 1975 “changed everything” for Bedard from his preaching to his priorities as a priest, he said. “He grasped the significance of the document.”

The CC priests can look back and see a prophetic dimension to Father Bob’s life and priesthood, as he founded the new order a little more than 25 years ago,” McQuaig said. Bedard saw the found as a “move of God” that was in the current of grace announced by Pope John Paul II when he spoke of the New Evangelization.

But just as the first evangelization, required Pentecost, where the disciples waited in the Upper Room to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Pope John Paul II also spoke of a new Pentecost to provide the new gifts to lead and empower the New Evangelization, McQuaig said, noting Pope Benedict XVI has also spoken of this. “Father Bob was prophetically aware of that early on.”

Bedard was a pioneer of the New Pentecost through his experience of the Holy Spirit in 1975, and a leader in the Charismatic Renewal up to the last years of his life, McQuaig said.

“The reason he was so effective as a leader of the Renewal was he was able to bring it into the heart of the faith,” McQuaig said. In the 1970s, the Marian Movement and Charismatic Renewal were separate and exhibited mutual distrust, but Father Bob integrated the Marian teachings, as well as the teaching authority of the Magisterium, the role of Peter in unity, the lives of the saints and the importance of the sacraments—especially the centrality of the Eucharist into his teaching.

“He coined a phrase for us: Fully Catholic, with an Evangelical heart and Pentecostal fire,” he said.