Florida Catholic | Serra Club Seeks New Members

Serra Club seeks new members

The Serra Club, dedicated to the support of priestly vocations, is promoting membership during passage of vocations monstrance through south Florida.

ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FLORIDA CATHOLIC MIAMI BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 04.18.08

For information on Serra International go to www.serraus.org

• The sole requirement for membership in Serra is to be a Roman Catholic with an interest in promoting vocations.

• The Serra-sponsored altar server awards are scheduled for Sunday, April 20, 10 a.m., at St. John Vianney College Seminary, 2900 S.W. 87 Ave., Miami.

• To contact Serra Club of Miami, call Sallye Jude at
305-325-0045

• To contact Serra Club of Broward, call Malcolm Meikle at 954-946-2551.

• Annual dues are $80 in Broward and $70 in Miami.

MIAMI | It’s Serra, not Sierra, and green is not their color.

If they had a color, members of Serra International might choose black and white. That’s because their mission is to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and provide financial support to seminarians.

Founded in Seattle in 1934 by four Catholic laymen, Serra clubs are named for Father Junipero Serra, the Franciscan missionary known for founding a string of mission churches throughout California in the 18th century.

Serrans were once a large, powerful presence in the Archdiocese of Miami. The Serra Club of Miami was founded less than six months after the establishment of the diocese, and the Serra Club of Broward County just a few years later, in 1962. Bishop Coleman F. Carroll counted on Serrans to help fund his very first building project, St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami.

But like many of the older church groups, the Serra clubs of Miami and Broward counties have seen a steady decrease in membership in recent years.

The Miami club has about 30 members, according to president Sallye Jude, and the Broward club has about 15, although all are very committed, according to Broward president Malcolm Meikle.

“It’s a very active group. When we have meetings we have 100 percent attendance,” Meikle said. “We’re very dedicated and devoted to Serra and promoting vocations.”

But the group is no longer well known, and Sallye Jude decided the best time to change that was now — during the jubilee days of prayer for vocations, when the monstrance blessed by Pope John Paul II is touring the archdiocese to encourage people to pray for vocations before the Blessed Sacrament.

“This monstrance is a Serran monstrance,” Sallye Jude said, pointing out that the late pope gave custody of each of the six vocations monstrances he blessed to the Serra clubs in each of the six continents.

At every one of the monstrance’s stops in Miami-Dade County, Serrans are distributing information and a membership form along with copies of the Serran prayer for vocations.

The Miami Serra Club also hosted a dinner recently that netted $5,000 for the Miami seminary. The Broward Serra Club helps fund St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach.

This weekend, the Miami Serra Club will present its annual altar server awards to the top altar servers from 59 parishes.

“They’re the ones who are more likely than any” to become priests and religious, said James Jude, former president of the Miami Serrans and Sallye Jude’s husband.

He noted that Father Manny Alvarez, now director of vocations for the archdiocese, still treasures the service pin he received at one of those ceremonies.

James Jude said it was important to reach out to the younger generations because “they don’t have any idea what religious life is like any more. They (teachers) were all nuns when I went to school.”

The Judes would like to see parishes saying the Serra vocations prayer every week at Mass, or praying for vocations during the prayer of the faithful. They would also like to see laypeople more involved in recruiting worthy young men and women to be priests and religious.

“They need to help us with the prayers, but we also need them to help discern vocations in the parish,” James Jude said.

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