PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

By Sue Cicherski, Serra International President

 
In October 2002, the Serra International Board of Trustees traveled to Rome for its fall meeting. While in Rome, we were privileged to take part in an audience with the Holy Father and to be present at the ordination to the diaconate of the class of 2002 from the Pontifical North American College. We were also honored to be invited to attend a specially convened meeting with Zenon Cardinal Grocholewski, Prefect of the Congregation of Catholic Institutes, and Vice Prefect Archbishop Pittau, Head of the Pontifical Work for Ecclesiastical Vocations.

It was a very memorable visit in so many ways, and provided tangible proof of the Holy See’s recognition of the importance of Serra’s work for vocations.
I want to share with all of you the thought-provoking and inspiring message from “our” Cardinal who received your International Board of Trustees with such warmth and enthusiasm. On Oct. 12, 2002, here is what he said:

“This pleasant gathering offers me the opportunity to express to you my most sincere gratitude for your generous service to the Church in vocations pastoral action. I shall be glad to listen to what you will tell me about your future programs, for which I assure you now of the continued cooperation of the Pontifical Work for Ecclesiastical Vocations, to which the Serra movement has been aggregated since 1951.

“In the meantime, I should like to share with you some thoughts to encourage you in your undertaking in the Church. Your movement is linked to the example and teachings of Blessed Junipero Serra. You demonstrate two of his characteristics: a love of priestly vocations and the constant dedication to witnessing Christian faith in the environments in which you live and carry out your activities. These are the objectives that you have established in your Constitution and Bylaws and which regulate your lives as Serrans.

“These two aims cannot be separated. In fact, I am convinced that the love for priestly and religious vocations will bear fruit in the measure in which each person deepens and lives the demands of Christian living. The dedication to praying for, promoting and helping priestly vocations must have at its base a truly Christian life. Only the person who conforms to the ‘Christian vocation,’ only the person who witnesses with joy, clarity and without compromise his or her sincere adhesion to Christ and to the Church, can be a credible apostle of priestly vocations. In other words, your apostolate will be all the more effective the more you seek to aim at holiness in your lives.

“Pope John Paul II put holiness first in his pastoral plan for the whole Church at the beginning of this new century. All pastoral initiatives must be set up in relation to holiness. It is necessary therefore to rediscover the full practical significance of Chapter 5 of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, dedicated to the ‘universal call to holiness’ (Novo millennio ineunte, n. 30). Convinced and generous adhesion to this plan, which is for the whole People of God, is also essential presupposition so that your work for priestly vocations will be fruitful.

“In reference to vocations pastoral action, your valuable contribution to the Church is well concentrated in defined areas: prayer, and active work for the birth, growth, and persistence of priestly vocations. This ‘charism’ of the Serran movement is necessarily rooted in the Church, and maintains its vitality on the basis of a clear vision of the nature of the priestly ministry.

“I am convinced that without the profound knowledge of the supernatural value of the priesthood, there would be no motive to promote in a particular way priestly vocations; nor to give a special support to priests. Rather, it is this knowledge that drives each member of the faithful from within – each priest, religious, and lay person – to encourage young men to live a deep faith, to pray with them and for them, to ask them openly if they have thought of the possibility of becoming priests, to witness with our own lives the great esteem and the particular respect for the priest as priest.

“The more the gift of the divine vocation appears in its sublime and supernatural uniqueness, the more the human heart is made ready to receive the gift with generosity, dedication, and joy. An ideal that is unclear does not attract, does not fascinate the young man, does not make him ready to dedicate himself to it for his whole life. An image of the priesthood deprived of its unique quality, of its supernatural beauty, does not produce a generous response in young men. Even if they possess the interior dispositions to receive the call, they need a clear knowledge of the priestly identity. In this regard, the authoritative words of Pastores Dabo Vobis, more than any other statement, have value: ‘Knowledge of the nature and mission of the ministerial priesthood is an essential presupposition, and at the same time the surest guide and incentive toward the development of pastoral activities in the Church for fostering and discerning vocations to the priesthood and training those called to the ordained ministry’ (n. 11).

“I explained this conviction also in the speech that I gave to the recent important International Congress on Vocations to the ordained ministry and to the consecrated life in North America, which took place in Montreal last April. Serra International made an important contribution to that Congress. I again thank you sincerely, and I am sure that you will help to actualize the working guidelines that emerged from the Congress and which the Church in North America will set out in the pastoral document that is currently being prepared. Your contribution in prayer and action, made in communion with the local bishops and with the organizations of vocations pastoral action, can be greatly effective if it aims at highlighting the Christological and ecclesiological principles which illuminate the identity of the vocation to the priestly ministry.

“The ministerial priesthood configures the priest, by virtue of a particular sacrament, by virtue of the character, to Christ the Priest, Head and Shepherd. Today more than ever, the Church needs to reawaken an appreciation of the greatness and beauty of the priesthood. In this, the contribution of your movement can be of immense value.
“I think it is useful to add that people who work in vocations pastoral action must also ask questions of the numbers, the on-going situation regarding vocations in the world. Numbers, too, have a voice!

“In the total number of vocations to the priesthood from 1978 to 2000, there has been the tendency to continuous growth. From 64,000 in 1978 we arrived at 111,000 in 2000. But whilst in Africa, in Asia and also in Latin America, the growth has been strong (in Africa from 5,636 in 1978, we arrived at 20,383 in 2000), in North America, in Europe and in Oceania we have a contrasting situation, and the increases have been much smaller.
“The number of candidates to the priesthood, however, is very much put into perspective if we link it to the number of Catholics in the various continents. Thus, we go from 242 candidates per million Catholics in Asia, to 157 in Africa, to 113 in Oceania, to 96 in Europe, and to 70 in the Americas. Also, the comparison between the number of candidates to the priesthood and the number of priests makes us think. In Africa, there are 75 candidates per 100 priests, in Asia 60. On the other hand, in the Americas there are 30 candidates per 100 priests, in Oceania 19, in Europe only 13 (cf. V. Formenti—E. Nenna, La Chiesa nel mondo: analisi relativa alla consistenza numerica degli operatori pastorali, in Seminarium, 3—4 (2000), pp. 916-918).

“From these data, we see that the relative weight of the various continents has changed significantly in recent years. Without doubt, this situation has bearing also on the possible future developments of your operative units, the ‘Serra clubs,’ which, I read in the article in La Civilta Cattolica (G. Raffo, I ‘Serra Club’ e la postorale vocazionale, 1st December 2001, pp. 481—484) were 767 in 2000, distributed in 36 countries throughout the five continents, with a large presence especially in the United States (313 clubs), Brazil (199), Italy (68) and Mexico (46). In the list, your presence in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, Ghana and Nigeria also figure.
“I believe that is very important for Serra Clubs to be present also in the places where there are signs of growth of vocations, because often in these places there are insufficient means to sustain the great gift that the Lord continues to make, so that there will not be a lack of laborers for his harvest. In these very days, I am receiving the bishops of Brazil, who are here in Rome for their Ad Limina visit. A group of bishops from Mato Grosso, where most of the dioceses are of recent foundation, spoke to me of the birth of a good number of vocations to the priesthood. Together with the joy and the great hope for the future of these dioceses, however, the bishops expressed to me also their concerns for the lack of necessary means to sustain the seminaries and the formation of candidates to the ministerial priesthood.

“I shall finish now, because I want very much to hear from you what your plans are. However, I cannot end without expressing to your once more my gratitude for your generous work, which is based on the conviction that the Church and society need priests because they have an absolute need of God.”

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