Influenced by St. Teresa of Calcutta, English journalist Malcolm Muggeridge converted to Catholicism with his wife in 1982 at the age of 79. In 1969 he had produced the documentary "Something Beautiful for God" for the BBC, and two years later he had written the book of the same name about the foundress of the Missionaries of Charity, thus making her known to the world.
On May 24, 2025, a great-grandson of his, 32-year-old Canadian Sebastian Muggeridge, one of five sons of John Muggeridge Jr. and his wife Christine, will be ordained a priest.
The only daughter, Cecilia, is an auxiliary numerary of Opus Dei. She works at the Collegio Romano di Santa Maria in Rome. "Mens sana in corpore sano": it is useful for Cecilia to be able to speak English, French, Spanish and Italian, as she helps to maternally care for dozens of students studying Theology, Canon Law, Philosophy, and Institutional Social Communication of the Church at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. Here you can find her witness.
Omnes spoke with Deacon Sebastian Muggeridge, just a few months away from receiving priestly ordination. But before the conversation, let's first transcribe a quote from Companions of the Cross founder Father Bob Bedard: "I love the Church... 'the sleeping giant.' Once we begin to rediscover what it means to evangelize and to undertake a full-scale revival of this ministry, I see the Church awakening and coming alive in such an explosive way that, with the power of the Holy Spirit, it will shake the earth and the nations with its dynamic presence."
How did you discover your vocation?
- If someone had told me in high school I would have burst out laughing. After high school I studied nursing at the University of Ottawa, and lived as if God did not exist. Everything changed in 2013 with a confession that brought me deep joy. It was at a university retreat and the priest was a Companion of the Cross. A young college missionary encouraged me to ask Jesus daily that He be at the center of my life. That's what I prayed and that transformed me. I started going to daily Mass.
Some ladies who saw me in church asked me why I didn't become a priest. When I told a priest about it, he reassured me by telling me that one does not give oneself a vocation but that God is the one who puts it in your heart. But one day, sitting in my parish church, I prayed a dangerous prayer: "God, I will do whatever you want, even ordain me. All I ask is that you put this desire in my heart".
God answered me by befriending me almost without realizing it, several priests, some of whom were Companions. I asked to enter their novitiate in 2016. I was ordained a deacon on September 14, 2014, feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and will be ordained a priest at Notre Dame Cathedral by the Archbishop of Ottawa, Marcel Damphousse.
Who are the Companions of the Cross?
- Since 2003 we have been a Society of Apostolic Life, founded as a community of clerical brothers 40 years ago in Ottawa by the then diocesan priest Bob Bedard. I never met him as he passed away, in Ottawa, in 2011. We have over 40 priests, and two Canadian bishops are Companions as well.
Near this Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit our community has its own formation house where we, a dozen CC seminarians, reside. Our charism is evangelization, we do a lot of parish work, and we are also involved in other work such as university chaplaincies. We are in the Canadian provinces of Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and in the states of Michigan and Texas. Our Superior General is Father Roger Vandenakker.
What can you tell about your ancestors?
- As my sister Cecilia relates in a video, it is part of the oral tradition of our Muggeridge family the story of Malcolm, who after leading a worldly life as a young man, converted to Catholicism along with his wife Kitty Dobbs. She was the niece of the well-known English feminist and socialist Beatrice Webb. Of Malcolm's three sons, one also converted, my grandfather John Sr. whose wife, Anne Roche Muggeridge, was a well-known Canadian Catholic writer, author of two books on the challenges in the Church after Vatican II. Anne helped my grandfather and great-grandparents convert. John and Anne had 4 sons, a daughter and 28 grandchildren.
Zygmunt Bauman thinks that today there is a habitual way of living characterized by not maintaining any determined direction: it is a "liquid society". You and your sister found a vocation to celibacy. How can we encourage more young people today to commit themselves vocationally, also in Christian marriage?
- If I had the answer, it would be a very valuable answer... We have to give young people a chance to encounter Christ in person. They have difficulty making decisions. But they want authenticity. Deep down, they want to give themselves in a real, noble and inspiring way. We have to encourage this encounter, so that many of them feel the call to religious life, to the priesthoodto marriage.
I encourage young people to try that dangerous prayer that I did at one time, which is terrifying, but worthwhile. I now appreciate more what my sister did. Since she is older than me, when she joined Opus Dei, I understood it less than I do now. It is her total dedication. Now I understand her vocation of service better. I began to notice it at the Manoir de Beaujeu, a retreat house near Montreal, where she worked for a while. I will see her this spring when she visits Canada for my ordination and for my younger brother's wedding. I hope to return her visit in Rome during the Jubilee, after my ordination.