With help of legacy members Serra Club restored in diocese

Ron Alonzo, new president of Serra Club addresses group’s meeting as Sondra and Chuck Cazalas listen. Alfredo E. Cardenas, South Texas Catholic

In 1953, 33 Catholics came together in the Diocese of Corpus Christi to organize a Serra Club to promote vocations to the priesthood and religious life in their diocese. After celebrating 50 years of successful ministry, many members began to age or pass away and a few years short of its 60th anniversary the Serra Club became inactive.

Earlier this year, with the encouragement and assistance of Father Joseph Lopez, JCL the Serra Club came back into existence and has renewed its commitment to growing vocations in the diocese. Under the direction of its new president, Ron Alonzo, and the help of some elder statesmen of the previous organization, the Serra Club is on its way to being a key player in supporting vocations once again.

“The first event that they assisted with was the very successful Project Andrew Dinner held in January,” Father Lopez, vocation director for the diocese, said.

Approximately 42 young men, high school age and above, have expressed an interest in discerning a vocation to the priesthood and are contacted by Father Lopez on a monthly basis to keep the conversation going. Twelve of those young men are actively in a discernment group that meets monthly. Twelve young ladies are also considering a vocation to consecrated life.

Providing support to these young men and women as well as the 12 currently in the seminary is a vital role of the Serra Club. They also provide support for priests and sisters.

The main function of the club is to foster and promote vocations to the ministerial priesthood in the Church as a particular vocation to service, and to support priests in their sacred ministry. They are also called to encourage and affirm vocations to consecrated religious life in the Church. A third goal of the group is to assist its members to recognize and respond in their own lives to God’s call to holiness in Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit.

They pray for vocations and members receive enrichment through a worship element provided by its chaplain, Father Lopez, and through fellowship. Fray Junipero Serra, OFM, who founded a chain of missions along the California coast, is the organization’s patron and a role model on how to live a life of heroic virtue.

Other role models for the new group of Serrans are some members from the old group who provide institutional memory on the group’s mission and past activities. Legacy members such as Alfred and Adele Hesse, Dr. Mike and Francette Meaney and Jim Ridley provide the new group with a much-needed foundation.

The new group met on Feb. 27 and approved payment of dues to Serra International to reinstate their membership with the national group. There are currently more than 750 Serra clubs in 42 countries with a total membership of more than 20,000 laywomen and men. Membership in local Serra clubs is restricted to Catholic laywomen and men, and to those who have been ordained to the permanent diaconate.

The club tabled action on setting of membership dues and received a report from the treasurer that they had some $68,000 in the bank left by the previous Serra club. Father Lopez informed the group that he would like their assistance with the upcoming vocation awareness retreat to be held on June 20-22 at the new Pax Christi Retreat Center; some 80-85 participants are expected.

Other officers, in addition to Alonso, are President-Elect Chuck Cazalas; Vice-President for Vocations Andrew Aguirre; Vice-President for Membership Robert Gough; Vice-President for Programs Neil Hayes; Vice-President for Communication Alfred Hesse; Treasurer Paul Laudadio; and Secretary Margo Alonzo. They meet monthly, on the fourth Thursday of each month.

While the new club is still getting on its feet, Father Lopez is optimistic that the Serra club will be a valuable asset in the work of cultivating vocations in the diocese. He believes the diocese is big enough to foster additional clubs in the outlying communities such as Alice, Beeville and Kingsville.