We’re going to Montréal!
We’re excited to announce that the Companions of the Cross will be establishing a household in Montréal, QC, Canada. This expansion to Montréal is ad experimentum (meaning trial period) for one year.
The priests who will be moving to La Belle Province are:
- Fr. Bryan Sabourin, CC will continue in his role as Director of Ongoing Formation.
- Fr. David Bergeron, CC will begin a new role as Assistant Director of Ongoing Formation.
- Fr. Kevin Darwent, CC will serve as Assistant Pastor at Saint Willibrord Parish.
- Fr. Tim Silver, CC will serve as Assistant Pastor at St. Ignatius of Loyola Parish.
What does this all mean and what are we doing?!
Church Planting
Mainly, we are going to Montréal to learn about “church planting” in the Catholic context.
What is Church Planting?
Church planting is all about Mission. Here’s how it works: a thriving parish partners with a struggling parish. A pastor and ~20-30 missionaries from the thriving parish go on mission to the struggling parish with the goal of turning the struggling parish into an explosively alive parish.
Why Montréal?
St. Ignatius of Loyola Parish recently partnered with St. Willibrord parish in the first church plant (in the Catholic context). Parishioners from St. Ignatius are on mission at St. Willibrord. We’re sending Fr. Kevin and Fr. Tim to these parishes to learn from Fr. Michael Leclerc and Fr. Garrick Huang.
We’re very excited to learn from Fr. Michael and Fr. Garrick. If we want to see the Church come explosively alive, we’re going to have to experiment and try new things.
Ongoing Formation
The Companions of the Cross are dedicated to the ongoing formation of their priests. We continue to hear from priests all over the world about the challenges they face when they are ordained and placed in the parish setting.
We are committed to ensuring our brothers are healthy, holy, and happy priests, and that they have the proper formation to thrive. This requires continuous formation; that’s why we’re bringing in our ace-in-the-hole Fr. David to work with Fr. Bryan in building this new and exciting initiative within our Community.
Brotherhood
Our life together is central to who we are as Companions of the Cross. We believe the brotherhood is of the utmost importance to our ministry. We live in four-man households. As such, Fr. David and Fr. Bryan are going to Montréal to ensure that we have the proper household.