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Acceptance Speech

SERRA INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION, BRAZIL, AUGUST, 2008
Cesare Gambardella, PRESIDENT, SERRA INTERNATIONAL, 2008-09

Eminences, Excellencies, Priests, Chaplains, Seminarians, fellow brothers and sisters in Serra.
Serra International is in its’ 73rd (seventy-third) year and I am its’ 65th (sixty-fifth) President, the 3rd (third) Italian in its’ history.

Words are not enough to express the emotions I feel at this moment for the honor you have given to me to preside over such a prestigious organization..

I would like to express my sentiments on this occasion as I begin an experience which will always be in my heart and in my mind and will remain with me for the rest of my life.
It is not possible to describe what I feel as I stand before you, friends from all over the world, all the religious authorities, the team of the International Board, knowing that I have your affection and prayers to support me.

Publicly, I wish to show my gratitude to the Archbishop of Palermo, Monsignor Paolo Romeo for having accepted to be at my side on this occasion and for his respect and esteem for Serra as well as being a comfort and a stimulus.
I also wish to publicly express my appreciation for the presence of his secretary Don Fabrizio, whom I have seen enter the seminary and followed his progress to his ordination, performing his duties which I believe are fundamental for each Serran.

I am certain that he will be praying for me as I have prayed for him during the years of his formation. Now, as I prepare , with full responsibility, to assume the helm of this organization, I
stand before you with pure motives of service and great humility.

My first thoughts are of the 64 (sixty-four) Past Presidents, with gratitude for all that, each one of them with his own charisma, have done for the good of Serra. Among them, allow me to mention Giovanni Novelli, thanking him for his friendship
and lamenting the fact that he is not physically beside me at this time, to show me once more his joy for my nomination.

A special thank you to Lloyd, the President who precedes me and who administered at a very difficult time in the life of Serra International.

I strongly hoped that all the problems that existed would have been resolved during his presidency. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The Good Lord wanted us to do things calmly and not in haste; therefore, it will be my duty to finish the work he has started.- beginning with the important results he has achieved during the past year.

Obviously, this will be my priority all my efforts will be at Serra’s disposition, with my obligation and my capacity to mediate and to overcome every obstacle that separates us from resolving any controversy.

I believe in signs from the Lord. This is a wonderful opportunity for me and I guarantee that I will be above all issues and
continue to have only one interest : - the good of Serra.

I promise to be a president for all the Serrans of the world – especially for all the American Serrans. Where I know that there are controversies I will form commissions, with representatives
of all points of view and opinions and will select only members whose objectives put Serra above all.

I, personally, will oversee everything. We will have to act quickly and well, because our attention must return to the purpose intended by our forefathers in Seattle when they founded Serra.

In fact, we must not be distracted from the work for which we exist. Our principal objective is to bring attention to public opinion, that we are a universal Lay movement – just as the Church is universal and is not afraid to manifest its faith and knows how to acquire prestige in this society, thanks to the authority of its members.

We have to emerge from the confines of our clubs and work in the difficult fields of today’s society, where the church can have more difficulty entering, as Catholic laity with our charisma. as Serrans, responding to what was asked of us in the second Vatican Council.

Therefore, it is necessary to have a strong and united Serra. Even with its individuality each club is tied to its own international reality and should feel that it is a link in a chain
from which it can draw strength, stimulus and ideas: A Serra in which every member can count on the whole world of thousands of men and women who share the same goal – the
increase in vocations and above all feel joined by one of the most gratifying sentiments that exist: reciprocal and liberal friendship.

I will ask the Vice Presidents, with all their strength and desire, to create a relationship with all the National Councils, all regions and above all with the clubs, so that there can be an advantageous dialog with the Board.

Once again, I thank Lloyd for starting this process. With him, the National Councils have begun to be informed on activities and decisions of the Board. We must increase this relationship.

As I said before, the relationship with the Board gives the sense that we are all part of an international organization. And in this concept lies the true strength of Serra International.

Why has Serra obtained the recognition of the Church with the affiliation of the Congregation for Catholic Education?

Because of its internationality. This year, internal communications must be a priority, so that all Councils, regions and clubs shall often send updated reports to the office in Chicago – which will in turn be responsible to keep the archives and its records updated and have them available to those who have need of them.

Only in this manner members of the Board can contact those responsible for the Councils and Clubs throughout the world in order to keep them informed about central projects and ask their thoughts and in turn receive reports on their activities.
We cannot be behind in the field of communications because it is the instrument which our society mostly uses and can be the best method to transmit our messages above all, to the young.
Let us learn to use communications the way Jesus taught us – Jesus who was the greatest communicator of all.

I would like to emphasize the purpose and our activities as Serrans. I have no doubt that to be a Serran is to have answered a call. I ask myself: what does the Lord wish us to do? I believe the most frequent answer is “that we
pray”. I am sure that this is correct, even if the Lord has already asked us to pray when we became Christians; but now as Serrans, he probably asks us to pray more intensely with particular emphasis for vocations.

This answer seems too simple for me. The inspiration of our Founders, their happy intuition, was that of forming a service club. Not a prayer group. Then, perhaps, the Lord wants something more of us. John Paul II in an audience on March 29, 1980 said: “It is admirable that the lay people profoundly convinced that the church and society needs priests because they have absolute need of God, make diligent prayer the main purpose of their Christian pledge, and actively work for the diffusion, development, increase and help of vocations.”

And again on occasion of the Serran observance of the Jubilee, December 7, 2000, the same pontiff said: “Along with prayer, the pastoral care for vocations requires a constant obligation with sensitivity and witness, so that the call to God will be found in persons ready to hear and generously respond. This is what you strive to do dedicating yourselves to the diffusion of an authentic culture of vocations.”

Well, then, dear friends, besides prayer , which fortifies us and can move God’s heart, it is necessary that we act decisively in society, to continue to create that vocational culture that has been lost, so that it will be easier to plant the seeds of vocations that will be heard and then in fertile soil will grow and flourish.

It is witness to a life, lived according to the Gospel, on the part of men and women who can make a difference in the opinion of society,. who can improve and cure the ailing family, the first cradle of vocations, that today is disintegrating and formed by
immature parents who are not able to be models to their children.

The vocation of the ordained minister and of the consecrated life is not a problem that involves only the Church, but involves, in some way, the vision that men and women today have of their existence. In such a sense, what is worrying is not so much the lack of vocations, as much as the cultural climate in which we all live which has put into crisis the concept of vocation.

The problem of today is not the vocation but the culture of the vocations or rather the concept that the vocation becomes culture, an essential part of the normal way of thinking the life.
I recommend being in close contact with the seminaries and the seminarians. Always following the progress of the young during formation up to ordination, will incredibly enrich us and give him the friendship that will accompany him in his priestly life, especially in his early years in which he can have difficulties. He will know that he can count on the closeness of his lay friends that appreciate him, admire him and support him.

Our discreet presence, animated with these sentiments, can be reassuring to the young who decide to select that life and a comfort to their families, that , in many cases suffer for the decision made by their sons.

These thoughts must be a great stimulus to lay people and particularly for those who belong to Serra International.
On these bases, in the immediate future, the cultural commitment of Serra, in line with its institutional aims, must be developed.

We have much to do, but we will do it with commitment and enthusiasm in the conviction that in the moral rebuilding of today’s society, we Serrans, committed Catholics, are able to offer the decisive contribution which the Church expects from us.

I believe what the world today needs most is love. All the same, man is torn between love and egotism. The first is a gift. – the second is pretension. We have surely chosen the first.
Well, then, let us bring God’s love to the world, let us do it with our actions.

I wish to sum up my message with a motto “YOUR LOVE AND OUR HANDS’

Mary , Mother of Vocations, pray for us.
 

Cesare Gambardella
2008-09 President, Serra International

 

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