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Diocesan Serra Clubs host dinners to show support of seminarians

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
(Email Katie)

Serra Club members of the Diocese of Sioux City not only pray for the seminarians and priests but also want to get to know them.

With this in mind, the Carroll Area Serra Club and the Serra Club of Siouxland hosted dinners on Aug. 11 and 12 at the Vianney House in Milford for the seminarians. All of the priests of the diocese were also invited to join the seminarians and Serrans for the gathering.

The seminarians meet and get to know the Serrans. Now when they receive a card or something from the Serrans, they will be able to put the face to the name signed on the card. Father Brad Pelzel, vocations director for the diocese, said that is also how the Serra members get to know the young men they are praying for.

“When we come together for these afternoons, there is a sharing of hearts and a real sense of closeness is developed,” said the priest.

This year, 12 of the 14 diocesan seminarians were in attendance for the dinners. Each night there were about 40 who gathered including the seminarians, priests, the bishop and the Serrans.

“There is an opportunity for the Serra members to get to know the priests better and vice versa,” said Father Pelzel. “The priests also get to know the seminarians better.”

Several young men who are considering the priesthood were also invited to the gathering to meet the seminarians.

In the past, a breakfast was hosted by the Serra Club of Siouxland around Christmas time. Father Pelzel noted that this gathering was sometimes difficult to schedule due to the time of year and didn’t allow much time for the seminarians and Serrans to get to know each other.

“After I became vocations director, I stopped doing this. The Serrans weren’t happy with that because it was one of the concrete ways they could show the seminarians how much they care,” he said.

Father Pelzel proposed that the Sioux City Serra Club host a dinner for the seminarians when the young men are gathered each summer before the state of Iowa seminarian convocation.

This is the third year that the Sioux City Serrans have hosted a dinner and the first year the Carroll Area Serra Club has hosted a dinner.

“It has been a really wonderful situation,” said Father Pelzel. “Now they spend the afternoon together. They visit and get to know each other.”

Rosemary Paulsen, a member of the Carroll Area Serra Club, said that Father Pelzel asked if the Serra members would like to meet the seminarians. She thought that would be a great idea.

“We would love to meet them and know who we are praying for,” she said. “They are a wonderful bunch of boys. It was great day of visiting and getting to know them and of course the food was good also. I am so glad that we decided to go.”

She added that she thinks it is beneficial for both the Serrans and the seminarians to know that “we are here supporting them in our prayers, in our thoughts and remembering them on their birthdays and during those trying times such as tests. They pray for us also.”

Bill Kalin, a senior at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City and parishioner at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Holstein, has been discerning a vocation to the priesthood for a while and Father Pelzel invited him to attend the gathering.

“With an opportunity for a free meal and to meet all the seminarians I really felt this meeting was a must,” said Kalin. “Although some may get the picture of seminarians as perpetually solemn, distant and hooded men with no sense of humor who walk around all day in dark cloisters carrying candles and singing Gregorian hymns, I have long since abandoned such an image.  So it didn't come as a surprise to me that the seminarians were simply down-to-Earth, regular guys who happen to love the Lord.”

He commented that all the Serra Club members that he met were friendly and welcoming. 

“They asked me some basic questions about my life and I'm quite sure they never stopped smiling the whole time we were there together,” said Kalin.

Jerry Reinert, a Serra Club of Siouxland member and St. Joseph parishioner, was asked to be one of the cooks for the gathering this year and last year. He said he and his wife, Barb, enjoy meeting the seminarians.

“They are very enjoyable to talk to,” he said. “It is great to be able to talk to them and tell them how we need them.”

Chris Ciaffa, a seminarian from Le Mars who is in his fourth year of college seminary at Conception Seminary in Conception, Mo., commented that it was nice to see the support of the Serrans.

He said it is good to know that this diocese has two Serra Clubs, when some dioceses only have one or none at all.

“Getting together with them to have a good conversation is a lot of fun,” said Ciaffa. “They can put a face to the name that they have been given to pray for and support. It gives us a chance to have the tangible example of who is out there praying for us.”