7/14/08

Michael E. Strong, Serra Club of the Tacoma, WA

Dear Serrans, The first All-American Serra Conference closed with a rosary lead by three Franciscan friars at the grotto on the campus of the University of Notre Dame in northern Indiana. Our closing Mass took place a few steps from the grotto in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, one of the most beautiful and impressive places of worship in our great country.

We arrived 45 minutes early for Mass, and thanks to our host Serrans from South Bend, led by Mr. Dick Dornbos, we were seated in the front rows. When Mass began at 10:00 a.m., the Basilica was filled with nearly 1,000 people from all corners of this country – students, young families with children, single people, the very young and the very old. All joined Notre Dame’s choir in song.  Father Peter Rocca CSC, the Rector of the Basilica, greeted us before Mass began and recognized Serra and our mission of vocations with appreciation.

Wednesday through Saturday was spent primarily at the Gillespie Conference Center, a short distance from the Notre Dame Campus. The Hilton Garden Inn and the Inn at St. Mary’s were headquarters for most of us.

Wednesday and Thursday were devoted primarily to the USA Council board meetings and committee meetings, where the business of reviewing and evaluating our programs to better serve our districts and clubs in this vocation apostolate takes place.

Friday and Saturday we were educated by five excellent nationally recognized speakers and a panel who all addressed our conference theme “Vision of the Catholic Church in 2025.” Bishop Blase Cupich, our episcopal advisor, began Friday morning with a challenging keynote address. CDs and DVDs of all of the presentations are available from www.verandatapes.com.

The liturgies were celebrated at local churches each day beginning with Bishop John M. D’Arcy of Fort Wayne / South Bend, on Thursday, a great friend of Serra.

After lunch on Saturday, Bishop Cupich installed USA Council Officers, Region Directors and District Governors for the 2008/09 Serra year.

The demographics of our church in the United States are changing rapidly and we need to respond with our own changes, if we are to be of real service to the church in the U.S.

We can pray more. We can look for new ways to support our priests and bishops. We can build up our clubs with more active members and we can form new clubs in every section of our country.

Working together, let’s FOCUS our effort on membership for the next three years until we reach our goal of 15,000 active USA Serrans happily working in His vineyard.

            “O that today you would listen to His voice. Harden not your hearts” – Ps 95:7-8

Michael E Strong, USA Council President
Serra Club of Tacoma WA

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3/24/08

Ernest P. Doclar, Serra Club of the University of Dallas, TX

Summer Serra gatherings, at home and abroad   This summer hundreds of Serrans from around the world will converge on São Paulo, Brazil, for the annual Serra International Convention. Our Brazilian friends promise a bang-up, exciting, colorful gathering in the beautiful Águas de Lindóia resort outside the city. We hope that as many USA Serrans as possible will join their sister and brother members there.

But we surmise that many living in the USA will feel that Brazil is too far and costly to journey. If you are among them, the USA Council of Serra offers an alternative: an annual meeting and Super Weekend, dubbed the “Serra All-American Conference” by its coordinators, to take place on June 18-22, 2008, in South Bend, Ind.

Regularly, the USA Council conducts two Super Weekends a year, one in January and one in September. Here our board meets as do our various national committees. Also, it's been the custom to hold our annual meeting as part of the Serra International Convention when that event occurs in North America. When that's the case, more of our members feel the trip is affordable and not so tiring as a 10-hour trip to Europe or the Americas to the south. Combining the two events and placing them in the central USA, we hope to attract those who would ordinarily attend the SI convention and those who look forward to the Super Weekend. We hope to draw some who never take part in either but who might be intrigued by a different kind of conference in an interesting locale.

Several of our devoted Serrans from USAC Region 7 led by Dick Dornbos have organized what we anticipate will be an enticing conference in South Bend near the legendary Notre Dame campus. USA Council committees will conduct business on the opening days, June 18 and 19, but on the following two days we'll star workshops in the standing four committees: membership, vocations, program, and communications. Presenters for these workshops will be outstanding ladies and gentlemen who are experts in those areas. Renowned clergy and laymen and women will speak: our Episcopal Adviser Bishop Blase Cupich will talk on priesthood in the year 2025. Brother Paul Bednarczyk will address the subject of the future of religious men and women.

There are two convention hotels: the Hilton Garden Inn, the host hotel; and the Inn at St. Mary's. Several of the meals will be included in the registration fee of $150. You may want to stay at other nearby hotels. You can pull a registration form off the serraus.org website, or see pages 8-10 of this issue. Conference planners encourage you to book your room by May 18.

All of us USAC officers look forward to a large crowd, an enormous amount of socializing with new and old Serra friends, loads of new techniques to promote vocations, and inspiration to go forth enthusiastically in the coming year. I guarantee you a conference you'll not soon forget. I hope I see you and your spouse there.

Finally, the harmonious agreement developed by members of the the Serra International and USA Council boards in Omaha last December was reviewed and approved unanimously by the Serra International Board when they met on March 8 in Nashville, Tenn. We see this as a tremendous stride toward healing and cooperation within Serra. My board and I would like to thank all Serrans for their prayers and support.

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1/21/08

For a change, when Serrans arrived in Chicago for their January 2008 Super Weekend they didn’t have to slog through snow to make their way to the Marriott—O’Hare Hotel. Chicago in January can sometimes greet travelers with fearsome weather.  Fair though overcast skies this time had to be a favorable sign from the Holy Spirit.  Did it portend an easy time of the board’s passing of the terms that would settle the nagging restructuring controversy?  We hoped so.

(Scroll down for pictures from the event.)

The weekend meetings of the USA Council board and its committees chugged along smoothly. We laid ambitious plans for an all-out membership drive and stronger initiatives for vocations work in the clubs.  We devised helps to stage interesting internal programs and tied up the work of establishing a strong e-mail network between the council and clubs and districts.  At the final Sunday board meeting the motion to accept the terms agreed to at a December meeting in Omaha was first item of business.  At that Omaha gathering council and international delegates fashioned an agreement they nicknamed “The Omaha Accords.”  Moderating the session were one-time Episcopal advisor Omaha Archbishop Elden Curtiss and our own Episcopal Advisor, Bishop Blase Cupich.  A number of queries answered on Saturday afternoon to clarify the Accords had paved the way for a unanimous vote “For” the agreement on Sunday. 

The terms of those Accords or whatever you wish to call it, have appeared in detail in this web site for several weeks.  The agreement is repeated here for your reference.  Now the Accords go to the March board meeting of Serra International.  If the document gets the approval of that group, then its terms start to be implemented.  Completion may take up to early 2009. 

I want to thank those who accompanied me to Omaha.  They spent considerable time, effort, and money preparing for this meeting and negotiating so that we arrived at a peaceful resolution of the restructuring matter.  They were: past presidents Jim DeNike, Tom Benson, and Gary Davis, President-elect Mike Strong, and board members Patricia DeJarnett and Don Herman. 

Please continue to pray that all will goes well at the March Serra International meeting so that “The Accords” pass and we can get back to our major business, vocations.

Ernest P. Doclar

President, USA Council of Serra International

Serra International President Lloyd Crockett hands Blessed Junipero Serra medals blessed by Pope Benedict XVI to Topeka Serrans Yoshi and Frank Gerner. Lloyd distributed the medals as a gift to all who attended the SuperWeekend.

Serra International President Lloyd Crockett addresses SuperWeekend attendees at the General Session on Saturday morning.

Serrans Tom Moretti, John Latenser, Pat Manzo, Gary Davis, Mike Doohan and John Tichenor pose for a photo.

The USA Council Board assembled on Sunday morning for a meeting, during which they approved the accords from the summit in Omaha last month.

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Christmas 2007

Archbishop Elden Francis Curtiss’ Opening Remarks

Memorandum of Agreement

Signatures

God bless you and the work you do for vocations.