Scott C. McCaig (born December 12, 1965) is a Canadian

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. He is currently bishop of the Military Ordinariate of Canada.

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

appointed McCaig to this post on April 8, 2016. He served as

General Superior A superior general or general superior is the leader or head of a religious institute in the Catholic Church and some other Christian denominations. The superior general usually holds supreme executive authority in the religious community, while th ...

of the Companions of the Cross from 2006 to 2016.

Early life

McCaig was born December 12, 1965, in

Duncan Duncan may refer to: People * Duncan (given name), various people * Duncan (surname), various people * Clan Duncan * Justice Duncan (disambiguation) Places * Duncan Creek (disambiguation) * Duncan River (disambiguation) * Duncan Lake (d ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, on

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...

. His parents grew up in

Northwestern Ontario Northwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Northern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north and west of Lake Superior and west of Hudson Bay and James Bay. It includes most of subarctic Ontario. Its western boundary is the ...

. He grew up in

Kamloops Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the South flowing North Thompson River and the West flowing Thompson River, east of Kamloops Lake. It is located in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, w ...

, British Columbia.

Conversion

McCaig was baptised

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

and grew up as a cultural Christian of the Presbyterian and

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

denominations. His first experience in any church was a Catholic wedding. After high-school, McCaig spent a year skiing and hiking in Lake Louise, where he first began questioning his belief in the existence of God. While attending community college in Kamloops, as a history undergrad, he began dating a devout Catholic woman. She and her family, some of which were clergy, stirred McCaig's existential questions. After she left for Europe, McCaig dropped several of his college courses to study the existence of God and the divinity of Jesus. C.S. Lewis' apologetic argument for the divinity of Jesus known as

Lewis' trilemma Lewis's trilemma is an apologetic argument traditionally used to argue for the divinity of Jesus by postulating that the only alternatives were that he was evil or mad.Lewis, C. S., ''God in the Dock'' (Eerdmans, 2014), pages 100–101. One version ...

shifted McCaig's interest. His study of the revelations of

Fatima Fāṭima bint Muḥammad ( ar, فَاطِمَة ٱبْنَت مُحَمَّد}, 605/15–632 CE), commonly known as Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ (), was the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his wife Khadija. Fatima's husband was Ali, th ...

and Lourdes, and the lives of Faustina Kowalska, Padre Pio and

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

affirmed his belief in the divinity of Jesus and the existence of God. McCaig then began to seek where to find Jesus out of the thousands of

Christian denomination A Christian denomination is a distinct religious body within Christianity that comprises all church congregations of the same kind, identifiable by traits such as a name, particular history, organization, leadership, theological doctrine, worsh ...

s. McCaig engaged with members of various Christian denominations in attempts to determine the validity of the five ''solae''. These discussions led him to discover the theme of various denominations claiming to be faithful to the doctrine of the early Church Fathers' beliefs and practices, bringing him to study the early Church fathers. While studying McCaig began taking

RCIA The Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA), or ''Ordo Initiationis Christianae Adultorum'', is a process developed by the Catholic Church for its catechumenate for prospective converts to the Catholic faith above the age of infant bapt ...

. While taking RCIA, before his conversion, McCaig began co-leading the

Sacred Heart Cathedral Sacred Heart Cathedral may refer to: Africa *Sacred Heart Cathedral, Moundou, Chad *Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bamako, Mali *Sacred Heart Cathedral, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo *Sacred Heart Cathedral, Freetown, Sierra Leone *Sacred Heart Cathedra ...

young adults group, with a recent convert. McCaig studied

Ignatius of Antioch Ignatius of Antioch (; Greek: Ἰγνάτιος Ἀντιοχείας, ''Ignátios Antiokheías''; died c. 108/140 AD), also known as Ignatius Theophorus (, ''Ignátios ho Theophóros'', lit. "the God-bearing"), was an early Christian writer ...

, Pope

Clement of Rome Pope Clement I ( la, Clemens Romanus; Greek: grc, Κλήμης Ῥώμης, Klēmēs Rōmēs) ( – 99 AD) was bishop of Rome in the late first century AD. He is listed by Irenaeus and Tertullian as the bishop of Rome, holding office from 88 AD t ...

Polycarp Polycarp (; el, Πολύκαρπος, ''Polýkarpos''; la, Polycarpus; AD 69 155) was a Christian bishop of Smyrna. According to the ''Martyrdom of Polycarp'', he died a martyr, bound and burned at the stake, then stabbed when the fire failed ...

and

Irenaeus Irenaeus (; grc-gre, Εἰρηναῖος ''Eirēnaios''; c. 130 – c. 202 AD) was a Greek bishop noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in the southern regions of present-day France and, more widely, for the dev ...

, and saw the existence of

apostolic succession Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is held to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bish ...

, Petrine ministry,

real presence of Christ in the Eucharist The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is the Christian doctrine that Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist, not merely symbolically or metaphorically, but in a true, real and substantial way. There are a number of Christian denomina ...

intercession of saints Intercession of the Saints is a Christian doctrine held by the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. The practice of praying through saints can be found in Christian writings from the 3rd century onward. The 4th-century Apo ...

prayer for the dead Religions with the belief in a future judgment, a resurrection of the dead or a purgatory often offer prayers on behalf of the dead to God. Buddhism For most funerals that follow the tradition of Chinese Buddhism, common practices include chantin ...

church hierarchy The hierarchy of the Catholic Church consists of its bishops, priests, and deacons. In the ecclesiological sense of the term, "hierarchy" strictly means the "holy ordering" of the Church, the Body of Christ, so to respect the diversity of gifts ...

in bishops, deacons, priests, and three levels of holy orders. McCaig's study of the early Church fathers convinced him to enter into

full communion Full communion is a communion or relationship of full agreement among different Christian denominations that share certain essential principles of Christian theology. Views vary among denominations on exactly what constitutes full communion, but ...

with the Catholic Church receiving the sacraments of

confirmation In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. For adults, it is an affirmation of belief. It involves laying on ...

and

first communion First Communion is a ceremony in some Christian traditions during which a person of the church first receives the Eucharist. It is most common in many parts of the Latin Church tradition of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Church and Anglican Communi ...

at Easter Vigil, on April 18, 1987.

Education

McCaig has a BA in History from Carelton University, a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology from the

Pontifical University A pontifical university is an ecclesiastical university established or approved directly by the Holy See, composed of three main ecclesiastical faculties (Theology, Philosophy and canon law (Catholic Church), Canon Law) and at least one other facu ...

St. Paul University Saint Paul University (french: Université Saint-Paul) is a bilingual Catholic Pontifical university federated with the University of Ottawa since 1965. It is located on Main Street in Canada's capital city, Ottawa, Ontario. Fully bilingual, it ...

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, and a Master's degree in Divinity from St. Augustine’s Seminary and the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

NET Ministries

In the spring of 1987, two weeks after entering into full communion with the Catholic Church, McCaig took the Sacred Heart Cathedral youth group to a NET retreat. In autumn 1987, McCaig got accepted to serve with NET Youth Ministries for one year from 1987 to 1988. While serving on NET, McCaig met Bob Bedard, the founder of the Companions of the Cross, at a charismatic conference in Notre Dame. Bedard took McCaig, three of the other NET missionaries, and some seminarians out for food. McCaig and two of the other NET missionaries later joined the Companions of the Cross. McCaig is the second NET alumnus to be appointed bishop, after Bishop

Andrew H. Cozzens Andrew Harmon Cozzens (born August 3, 1968) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has been serving as bishop of the Diocese of Crookston in Minnesota since 2021. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese ...

. He continues to assist in the training of missionaries with NET Ministries of Canada.

Companions of the Cross

While discerning his vocation in St. Andrew's Cathedral in Victoria, British Columbia, McCaig recalls asking God, "If you really, really want me to be a priest, then I need you to speak to me in a way I will really understand." He then went to the back of the church and opened a copy of

The B.C. Catholic ''The B.C. Catholic'' is a weekly newspaper serving the needs of the Catholic community in British Columbia and is the official newspaper of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver. It was founded in 1931 and is published approximately forty ...

newspaper and saw Sean O'Sullivan's "Dare to be a priest like me" advertisement, that he saw ten years prior on a road sign in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. Within a few months he visited Bedard and moved to

. In 1989, McCaig joined the Society of Apostolic Life the Companions of the Cross in Ottawa. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1995. From 2000 to 2006, he served as an associate pastor, parish administrator, hospital chaplain, and Director of Formation for the Companions. In 2006, McCaig was elected

of the Companions of the Cross. He was re-elected in 2012 and served until his appointment to the Military Ordinariate of Canada in 2016.

Military Ordinariate of Canada

On April 8, 2016, McCaig was appointed to the Military Ordinariate of Canada by Pope Francis. Following his appointment he stated "It’s a crucial necessity to support the troops and support those protecting our freedoms and upholding human dignity." On May 31, 2016, on the

Feast of the Visitation In Christianity, the Visitation is the visit of Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus, to Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist, in the Gospel of Luke, . It is also the name of a Christian feast day commemorating this visit, celebr ...

, McCaig was consecrated as a

at Notre Dame Cathedral and installed as the bishop of the Military Ordinariate of Canada. In May 2017, McCaig led a military delegation of over 60 people on a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

to Lourdes, France. Maj-Gen. Chapdelaine stated this pilgrimage was part of a program for the spiritual resilience of

Canadian Armed Forces } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force. ...

members who seek to deepen their faith.

Other work

McCaig serves on the Board of Renewal Ministries Canada and has participated in missionary outreach to over fifteen countries in Africa, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia. Since 2013, McCaig has served on the board of Catholic Christian Outreach. He is involved in the spiritual formation of the members of the movement. He is the co-chaplain to the Spiritual Motherhood of Priests Apostolate in Ottawa.

References

External links

Roman Catholic Military Ordinariate of Canada
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCaig, Scott 1965 births 20th-century Canadian Roman Catholic priests 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in Canada Bishops appointed by Pope Francis People from Duncan, British Columbia Living people Carleton University alumni Saint Paul University alumni University of Toronto alumni