 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Serra Club of West Omaha President Pat Greenwood, Fr. Michael Mukasa of Uganda Seminary, and Serra Club of Omaha President Sherry Kennedy Brownrigg
by Sherry Kennedy Brownrigg
Being a Catholic priest in Uganda is not always easy. For Fr. John Kakinda, it means weathering the hardships of 20 years of rebellion against the government by the Lord’s Resistance Army, helping families who are torn apart by AIDS, traveling by bike or motorcycle to reach one of dozens of missions in the rural countryside, and making do with whatever supplies he can find to serve in his duties as a priest.
Despite the constant uphill battle, Fr. Kakinda and his fellow priests are rarely without hope, and they found an ally in the Serra Clubs of Omaha. Over the summer of 2006, a joint effort of the Serra clubs of Omaha and West Omaha raised over $1,500, purchased a Mass kit and collected 22 full sets of vestments, hundreds of rosaries and other items to be used for apostolic work in Uganda.
Serra Club of Omaha President Sherry Kennedy Brownrigg, Chaplain Fr. William Whelan, and Fr. John Kakinda
Fr. Kakinda first came to Omaha through the Girls and Boystown summer seminarian program in 2000. A transitional deacon at the time, Fr. Kakinda was hosted by Greg Schwietz of the Serra Club of Omaha, Dr. Madeleine Leininger of the West Omaha Serra Club, and Greg Logdson, now of the Serra Club of Grand Island. The trio kept in contact with Fr. Kakinda over the years, providing encouragement and prayer support through his ordination and initial years as a priest.
In 2006, Fr. Kakinda wrote to say that his brother Fr. Jude had also just been ordained. Citing the difficulties of serving as a priest in Uganda, he asked for help for his brother and others who were newly ordained. Noting a perfect opportunity to serve the Universal Church, the two Serra clubs in Omaha sprang into action. Members secured donations of gently used vestments and no longer needed vessels for Mass from local parishes and the Chancery in the Archdiocese of Omaha. Serrans donated financially to help purchase a mass kit for Fr. Jude, and extra funds were sent to a local seminary in Uganda to assist in educating the seminarians.
Fr. Jude Thaddeus Musazzi
Fr. Kakinda and Fr. Michael Mukasa, a faculty member of one of Uganda’s major seminaries, returned this summer to Omaha and were approached by Omaha’s Serra Clubs with an offer to once again provide assistance. When the donations were assembled, the 2007 Uganda Priest Support Program was nearly twice as successful as last year. According to Fr. Mukasa, the money raised is enough to help educate up to five seminarians.
Fr. Jude Thaddeus Musazzi
In a letter of thanks to the Omaha Serrans written last October, Fr. Mukasa said:
“Quite a big number of these students come from poor families but show a willingness and desire to serve the Lord and his Church. Because they are from humble families (financially,) the diocese has to subsidize their training. It is not easy for the bishop to do this but we try to impress upon the Christians of their responsibility to support seminarians; some respond positively. As a result, the bishop depends on the generosity of Christians from US and Europe. That is why we are very grateful for the partnership we are beginning with the Serra Clubs there in USA. We would love to work together in realizing this noble mission of forming future priests. Already we are very grateful for the assistance that was given to us in the form of vestments and Mass kit for one of our newly ordained priests... Some of the vestments went to other priests as the chancellor of the diocese pointed out in his letter. There was also cash that was given and two students were beneficiaries, one in the minor seminary… and the other in the major seminary....
“At this time my diocese has 73 major seminarians. Last year we ordained five priests and 11 deacons. Indeed as you can see, the future is very bright.”
Fr. Jude Thaddeus Musazzi
“This is what it means to be a Serran,” noted Greg Schwietz, a Serra District Governor. “The outpouring of gratitude from Fr. Kakina and Fr. Mukasa is something I will never forget.”
For further information on the Uganda Priest Support Program, contact Greg Schwietz in Omaha or Father Michael Mukasa in Uganda.
Are you like me in that you get jokes via e-mail…from your dearest friends, people who at times you’d like to but just can’t blow off because you’d hurt their feelings? I have this friend, he’s unchurched, but would probably admit to being Protestant if asked. He regularly sends me jokes and because he knows I’m Catholic and a Serran, they are often about a minister, or a priest, or a rabbi. Or all three. The latest one goes like this: A priest and a minister are standing by a road pounding a sign into the ground. The sign reads: “The end is near! Turn yourself around now before it’s too late! “A car speeds by, the driver turns his head their way, reads the sign, and yells out, ’Leave us alone, you religious nuts.’ Seconds later there’s the sound of screeching tires followed by a big splash. The priest turns to the minister and says, ‘Do you think the sign should have just said, ‘Bridge out?”
On your journey here I hope that you did not encounter any bridges out, flights delayed, or similar obstacles. I hope that you arrived here ready to be inspired to do great things for vocations, to be reinvigorated. I am optimistic about the future of our Church and its clergy. And I’ll give you a couple of reasons for my feeling the way I do. You may know that I live in Grapevine, Texas, in the Fort Worth diocese, though I do most of my Serra work in the Dallas diocese where my home club is located. If you belong to either of those dioceses, like me you’d be heartened about the future of vocations. The first reason is that we have two new bishops, one in each diocese, both smart, likable Irishmen, both named Kevin, and both keenly attuned to vocations and to Serra.
Secondly, we have young, vibrant vocation directors in each diocese. And they have great plans for attracting more young people to serving the Church. Something I read recently quoted Father Rudy Garcia, our Dallas vocation director, saying, “The church is experiencing a springtime increase of vocations.” It sure seems that way when you look at the record numbers of seminarians that both dioceses, Dallas and Fort Worth, have in formation: 21 for Dallas, 20 for Fort Worth. Those numbers might seem modest to you but they surely seem like signs of a springtime for vocations to me after having seen some mighty lean years. Should we Serrans get some of the credit for that progress? I surely am willing to take it. But we know that the increase is probably due to the work of both previous bishops and their vocation directors, the prayers of thousands, and the hard work of our vocation offices AND those of us like Serrans who devote time and energy to this task.
In a few moments I’m going to bring in to this talk our executive director, Ed Verbeke. But before I do I want to tell you how lucky we are to have Ed and his staff manning our Chicago office. I can’t imagine any of the USA Council officers or board doing what we do without Ed and his people reminding us of deadlines, reports, helping draw up agendas, telling us what our bylaws say we can and can’t do. They bombard us with e-mails and other communiqués that help us become more effective in doing our vocation work. They maintain our helpful web site and staff our publications. So, Ed, Peter, Anne, Jan, and Pat, thank you for all your work.
Some months ago Ed reminded me that I needed to come up with a theme and an accompanying slogan for my impending term of office. I gave it some serious thought and settled on the following theme and rationale. I feel strongly that each of us can do so much more than we are doing for vocations if we all assume a personal interest in achieving our objectives. So I chose a one-word theme: Responsibility.
Most of those I know who direct or have directed the course of Serra have demonstrated that they are leaders. Before they came to Serra they had served in their careers, parishes, and avocations in leadership capacities. That word “leader” denotes and connotes many qualities. But I want to emphasize that the word implies someone who, given a job, carries through. In French one word for “leader” is responsable. The obvious connotation carries over to English. We members of this vocations brotherhood are expected to be responsible to achieve our objectives: encourage and sustain priestly and religious calls to service; and draw ourselves and others closer to the Holy Spirit. Because I feel so strongly that all of us Serrans have to do our part to succeed, I’ve adopted as my slogan and hopefully one that you will share: “Because we are the Church, vocations are our responsibility.”
My personal emphasis which I hope to convey to our executive board, all the committees of the USA Council of Serra International, and, indeed, to the rank and file of Serra is that we must act responsibly throughout our Serra activities. To act this way requires that we possess a clear vision of our objectives, that we plan intelligently how to reach those objectives, and that we follow up to a successful conclusion. Each step is as important as the other but it seems to me that the one that may offer the most difficulty is to act responsibly to a conclusion. I’ve seen it in local Serra clubs and within the USA Council—we know what we must do, we plan well, but we often don’t maintain the momentum to success. And I’d be the first to admit that I have been as guilty as the rest of us in not carrying through as often or as well as I should have.
So Serrans in the ranks can expect to hear me repeat the slogan: Carry through between planning meetings and act more responsibly. Does this advice apply to you? If in studying the minutes of the meetings of your group do you see the same action items repeated time and again, without any conclusion? In that case it may be time to act responsibly and do something to provoke action or perhaps ditch that action for something more achievable and worthwhile.
Vatican II reminded us of a reality that had not been emphasized enough in the modern Catholic Church: that we are its body and all of what goes on in the Church is our concern. That’s why I chose the slogan: “Because we are the Church, vocations are OUR responsibility.” We share in the joys and the sorrows of the Church. We therefore should admit that this task of encouraging and sustaining vocations doesn’t only fall under the job description of the bishop, the pastor, or the associate. It is our job to assume our rightful share of the work to recruit new priests, deacons, and religious and to sustain and encourage those already in ministry.
At a past convention a guest speaker told of the pastor who in his homily had addressed the shortfall in priests in the diocese. Said the pastor, “When I retire next year, it may be that the bishop won’t have a replacement for me and you may have to share a priest with one or two other parishes.” After, when he greeted the congregation leaving mass, an old-timer came up to him and said, “Monsignor, I heard what you said about a replacement. Let me tell you what you ought to do: You march down to the chancery and say to the bishop, ‘Bishop, you know I need someone to take my place next year. Please just send us a new, young priest to take over.’ And he will, just as he’s done every time in the past.” We know that that might have worked when we were kids but today in many localities that reservoir of priests and religious has gotten drier and drier. If we want priests, brothers, and sisters, WE have to go get them.
We Serrans, recognized as leaders in our church, have to take the initiative and help sell more young people on saying, “Yes,” to the summons of the Holy Spirit. And we have to make big plans to do that. So I entreat our USAC officers and committees and all Serrans everywhere in the nation to set specific plans to solve specific problems, recruit more club members to help do the work, share the tasks required by those plans, set times for completion, and keep riding herd on the deadlines. We don’t do too bad a job of recruiting though we could vastly improve signing up new Serrans. But we lose more than we recruit, nationally, so that our net registers as a loss. One answer is to be more aggressive in recruiting more Serrans. And aim your recruiting toward the fifty- and sixty-year-olds, men and women. We have talked in the recent past about targeting thirty- and forty-year-olds. But folks in those ages are still trying to make their mark in their careers, saving money for retirement or to educate their children. Fifties and sixties people have more disposable income and time and can focus on vocations work more readily.
My friend and fellow Serran, past president of the USA Council, John Tichenor, recently brought home to me a reality that we, I included, don’t often consider: When you are selling Serra to a fellow Catholic, sell it as joining in a new ministry. For that is surely what it is: a ministry just as worthwhile as the work of the Knights of Columbus, the altar rosary society, the wedding minister, or that of mass lectors.
And please keep in mind that we can also work harder in keeping those Serrans we already have. It’s been found that meeting programs and meaningful activities focused on vocations can help hold members and strengthen their commitment to the objectives of Serra. . .
I promise you that I shall do my best to follow the advice I’ve offered in acting responsibly. I am going to hold myself responsible for what the USA Council needs to do in the coming year to achieve the objectives of Serra. I hope you commit yourselves to doing your part.
We ask Mary, Queen of Vocations, to help us in all we do.
The USA Council Communications Committee is very pleased to announced the following regional winners of the Outstanding Club Newsletter Award for 2007:
Region 1: Serra Club of New Hampshire
Region 3: Serra Club of Erie, PA
Region 5: Serra Club of Knoxville, TN
Region 6: Serra Club of Saginaw, MI
Region 8: Serra Club of Midway-St. Paul, MN
Region 10: Serra Club of Arlington-Metro, TX
Region 11: Serra Club of North San Diego County, CA
Region 13: Serra clubs of Southwest Denver and Boulder County, CO (tie)
Region 14: Serra Club of Savannah, GA
And the national Outstanding Club Newsletter Award 2007 goes to:
The Serra Club of Kansas City, MO!
All winners will receive a certificate. The Serra Club of Kansas City, MO, will receive a beautiful framed, matted and inscribed picture of Father Serra as drawn by artist George Pollard. Congratulations to all!
If you would like to submit your club’s newsletter for the 2008 competition, send three copies each of two consecutive newsletter published after August 2007 to the USA Council’s Chicago office at 65 E. Wacker Place, Suite 802, Chicago, IL, 60601, by May 15, 2008.
Our Priest Hero - Chaplain Emeritus Len Stegman
"Here I am O Lord, I want to do Your Will. What would You have me do today?"
This has been the personal motto of Fr. Len Stegman since his ordination on June 23, 1943. Father Len entered the U. S. Army Chaplain Corps in 1948; serving in Europe, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and at the Pentagon.
He received a Purple Heart, two Silver Stars, three Legion of Merit, a Bronze Service Medal, a Meritorious Service Medal, and various other awards during his military service. He retired in 1977 as a full colonel. One of his stories of serving in Korea is a featured article in the book "Blessings from the Battlefield" (edited by Thomas R. O'Brien, published by Our Sunday Visitor Publishing).
Today at 90, Fr. Stegman celebrates the Mass at Randolph AFB, Lackland AFB and serves as Chaplain Emeritus - Military Order of the Purple Heart and Chaplain Emeritus - Korean War Veterans Association. He also serves Mass at the Incarnate Word Village where he now resides.
Korean War Veterans Association National President, Louis T. Dechert recognized this priest hero with a proclamation declaring June 3, 2007, as "The Korean War Veterans Association's Father Leonard F. Stegman Day." He will also be recognized at their national convention (three days before Priesthood Sunday), with a small multi-media presentation focused on his response to the call to the priesthood and service to soldiers.
Submitted by A. J. Herran for KWVA National President Louis T. Dechert