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“The Year Ahead”

Presented by Serra International President Sue Cicherski
Closing Banquet, June 30, 2002
This text has been lightly edited for space consideration

Focus on youth

Once upon a time there was a senior in a Catholic girls’ high school who was introduced indirectly to Serra by way of an assigned essay on vocations. If she and her fellow students had written well, the young author would meet with the Reverend Mother who would ask the writer, “Do you think you might have a religious vocation?”
Sister summoned this one young author and asked her that question. The girl thought briefly and replied abruptly, “I don’t think so!!!”

Well, I was that girl and I probably responded without giving much thought to such a weighty question! Many years later, after having attended a Serra-sponsored Life Awareness Vocation Weekend in Houston, I told Sister Rosalie (who met with the young women there) that had I been offered the opportunity to attend something like a Vocation Weekend in high school, who knows what my decision to Mother Agnita’s question might have been!

Then, as now, we Serrans share the important responsibility of helping to make our youth aware of their life’s choices, especially a vocation to the priesthood or religious life. We are constantly exposed to violence, vulgarity, consumerism, materialism and secularism in the media. We also wag our heads in disbelief about the scandals that have beset our church. We owe our young people better direction than the distractions I just mentioned.
Many young adults, the Generation Xers, have grown up in backgrounds of divorce, individualism, political corruption and with little sense of what it means to be a Catholic.

Yet, amazingly, there is hope. Many of these same young people say that Catholicism is very important to them. They do want to help others. Just think of how strong their faith would be if they had the same direction as given by our parents and parishes.
But lacking strong families, as in many cases today, where can these youth turn to for examples? How do we awaken in them an appreciation for the beauty of the priesthood? Many may turn to priests and sisters. They have been found to be the best models to direct youth to vocations in the church. We can direct these youth to priests and religious who will gently and carefully welcome their inquiries.

The next likely source for direction is the family. Unfortunately, many parents are unconvinced of the Church’s need for priests and religious. They may not know how to advise their children. Many will discourage their children from the priesthood and religious life because they regard that life to be lonely, poorly-rewarded and lately … a life scandalized by the misconduct of a rare few.

So, what gives us hope?

We have hope in the spirituality of today’s youth, their generosity, the witness of many of today’s priests and religious, the effect of the Eucharist and prayer and as Serrans, the ability to be strong exemplars in our parishes. We Serrans could and should have an obligation to act as parental surrogates to advise youth about vocations. Every year the Holy Father reminds us in his message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations of the promise of the Lord of the Harvest. To reap vocations, we must begin with prayer, not said by Serrans alone, but by the whole parish community.

But as Serrans, and youth models, we must go beyond prayer to action. As Bishop Wingle once said, we become “the salt and yeast of the Gospel.” Serra International and its many committees, special programs, manuals and more can provide the tools with which to work that salt and yeast.

Your attendance at this gathering shows you to be more than mere “salt and yeast.” As in mixing of bread, you add flavor and movement to the recipe of faith. But we also know that simply combined, the ingredients of bread lie inert. They require kneading or working to produce the staff of life. Unworked by human hands, the dough fails to rise and becomes stale.

Hopefully, that last analogy does not describe your Serra club, one in which there may be good and faithful Catholics, literally the salt and yeast joined with flour, but unworked, unkneaded, because the hands are too tired.

Sixty years ago, Serrans were described as “tentative” (because the organization was young and entering a new area). Once again Serra has become a “tentative” organization . . . not because we are entering a new area, but because of age. Last year, the Serra International Board met in Rome with Cardinal Grocholewski, Prefect of the Congregation of Catholic Education, to which Serra International reports. The Cardinal surveyed all the “gray hairs” in our group and asked how we intended to invite younger Catholics into this great organization. We acknowledged that, apart from chartering a few Young Serra clubs, we had not been all that successful in attracting younger members. We admitted to “graying.”

In that regard, I have asked our International Vice President, Mike Potter, and his committee, to search out new and creative ways to make our clubs more inviting to younger men and women. So, I am asking each of you to be honorary members of that committee to recruit new blood and new ideas, or else this organization will become ineffective and die.

The goals of Serra International: to promote and affirm vocations, to bring back the dignity and love of religious life and to grow in our own faith. Let us leave here tonight committed to these goals, asking God for His blessings as we proceed, all the while remembering that:

We are called on a mission

We are called on a mission to serve the Lord

We are called on a mission

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