Our Mission
Statement
CCO Mission Statement Refresh
After decades of careful discernment of the Lord’s direction for CCO, we are pleased to announce a refresh of our mission statement. But the Lord has been giving us a wider reach from Canadian campuses to helping the Church and the world. The clear and simple wording of this 2024 mission statement expresses what CCO has always been, while making room for the newer mission fields God is entrusting to us.
OUR Refreshed Mission Statement
The tree represents the maturity of CCO’s growth whose roots go deeply through lives united in the Lord and growth in holiness.
The branches reflect the growing and wider reach of CCO’s mission, which brings life to the whole tree.
The trunk represents the campus foundation which strengthens the tree.
CCO is a Catholic movement raising up Christ-centred, Spirit-filled leaders to evangelize the world one person at a time.
A Message from our Founders
CCO is a Catholic movement raising up Christ-centred, Spirit-filled leaders to evangelize the world one person at a time.
CCO’s mission, rooted on University campuses, includes alumni, parishes, dioceses, and other key church and global partners.
Catholic Christian Outreach™ (CCO™) is a university student movement dedicated to evangelization. We challenge young adults to live in the fullness of the Catholic faith with a strong emphasis on becoming leaders in the renewal of the world.
In the early 2000s, CCO considered changing its name to Catholic Campus Outreach to describe its focus better. However, through consultations, it became clear that CCO’s mission was meant to extend beyond the university setting. Significant milestones, such as the Impact Halifax mission in 2004, where CCO’s methods were applied in parish contexts, demonstrated the potential for broader impact.
Since 2009, we have been quietly working with parishes—mainly volunteers, mainly in the parishes close to our campuses and parishes our executive staff attended… In 2013, we started exploring what it would be like to work more formally with parishes.
In January 2016, the CCO executive team engaged in a formal two-day Ignatian discernment led by Bishop Scott McCaig about the beyond-campus investments. Through that process, it was clear that CCO’s original call to campus did not mean it was limited there. This led to ongoing experimentation and pilot programs, confirming that CCO’s campus-based methods could effectively translate to wider Church contexts.
In 2019, we solidified our approach and invested in growing it significantly by starting a small dedicated team for CCO Parish coaching.
The refreshed mission statement emphasizes our commitment to impacting more people in more places. It reflects our desire to serve beyond the initial communities we started with while staying true to the mission we feel we have been entrusted with as a movement. We are not looking to change our mission but to align it with the evolving reach God has given CCO.
We value the legacy of our original mission statement and aim to build upon it with this refresh.
While we started on university campuses and that remains a vital part of our legacy, we’ve always seen our mission as something larger than a single demographic. From the very beginning our aim has been more than campus ministry as an end to itself – but to raise up leaders for the renewal of the world!
We are not a movement unto ourselves. We are a movement at the heart of the Church with a concern to help her in her worldwide evangelizing mission.
We aren’t abandoning our work on campuses—in fact, we’re building upon that foundation. We remain deeply committed to serving university students, and we’re excited to share our vision with alumni, parishes, dioceses, and partners who have expressed a need for the same kind of transformation we’ve seen on campus.
CCO’s journey, starting with a university-focused movement and growing to a broader evangelization force, reflects a continuous response to the needs of the Church and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The refreshed mission statement seeks to honour the original inspiration while articulating CCO’s expanded mission clearly and effectively. This evolution not only resonates with CCO’s current activities but also sets the stage for future growth and impact, ensuring that the movement remains a vibrant and relevant catalyst in the Church’s evangelizing mission.
Our refreshed mission statement strengthens our commitment to evangelization and expands our reach beyond campus, inviting all people to participate in the Great Commission. While our programs for students will continue, we are now better positioned to equip and inspire individuals at every stage of life to live out their faith and share the Gospel. This shift allows us to create new, mission-driven offerings focused on evangelization, discipleship, and spiritual growth for a wider audience. Our goal is to empower not only those on campus but also those in communities worldwide to actively spread the message of Christ and be part of a global evangelization movement. We are giving more spaces for our CCO alumni to impact off-campus.
Nothing changes on campus! Our campus-based programs, which include Faith Studies, Rise Up, Missions, and more, will continue to be a vital part of our mission. CCO was founded in a campus context and remains dedicated to evangelizing university students. For the foreseeable future, campus will represent the vast majority of our staff team.
We still plan on major campus expansions residentially (on-campus) and remotely (Connect) in Canada and internationally, increasing the number of missions and having all 110 Canadian campuses attend Rise Up.
At the same time, we are currently developing new initiatives to equip people beyond the university setting to live out the Great Commission. In the months ahead we are placing emphasis on alumni, parishes, dioceses and other partners, both online and in person.
There are many ways to be involved in the mission of CCO beyond campus:
Parish Partnerships: CCO collaborates with parishes to bring the Faith Studies and discipleship model into local church communities. Through these partnerships, anyone can get involved in a group study and become part of the mission, regardless of location.
Mission Trips and Retreats: Adults, alumni, and supporters can participate in a variety of CCO mission trips, retreats, and evangelization opportunities that extend beyond campus life, engaging in the Great Commission at a local and global level.
Evangelization Training: CCO provides training for people who want to lead small groups or evangelize in their own communities, equipping them with the tools and confidence to share their faith in their own contexts.
Support and Donations: Supporters of the movement can contribute by donating to CCO’s mission, providing resources that help the movement grow, and ensuring the continuation of programs that evangelize and disciple others both on and off campus.
Alumni Networks: Alumni of CCO continue to be part of the movement by leading small groups in their parishes, workplaces, or communities, maintaining the connection with CCO’s mission while carrying it forward into different environments. We offer a private FB community exclusively for Alumni.
We are in the process of developing even more resources and programs beyond campus, and are excited to share them with you soon!
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Our Mission at a Glance
Blog
October 8, 2024
A Mission is Born It’s been more than three decades since CCO’s founders set out to put into words the charism of their new movement. They composed a mission statement to guide their work: Catholic Christian Outreach is a university student movement dedicated to [...]
October 8, 2024
A Mission for Generations to Come After more than 30 years, the work of CCO has outgrown the language of our original mission statement. Through prayer and repeated opportunities, it has become evident that God is calling us to continue our mission on [...]