'Best kept secret' - how the Serra Club promotes vocations

Seminarians for the Diocese of Fort Worth pray during Mass at the Church of the Incarnation in Irving during the 2025 Vocations Awareness Program, hosted by the DFW Serra Clubs, on June 15, 2025.  (NTC/Juan Guajardo)

FORT WORTH — Rosanne Taylor-Hunt remembers her introduction to the Serra Club with a chuckle.

Inspired to become more involved in the Church after attending a parish retreat, a friend suggested she join the Northeast Fort Worth Serra Club.

The St. Francis of Assisi parishioner scoffed at the idea.

“I told her I don’t hike or bird watch,” she said, recalling how she confused the Serra Club, a ministry devoted to promoting religious vocations, with the national Sierra Club known for its environmental advocacy. “We still laugh about it now and then. A lot of people make that mistake.”

An active Serra member since 2018, Taylor-Hunt was one of three club presidents installed during the apostolate’s joint meeting on June 18 at Shady Oaks Country Club. Visiting the diocese for the first time, Dr. Anne Roat, president of the United States Council of Serra International, conducted the ceremony for officers and new members who belong to the Fort Worth, Arlington, and Northeast clubs.

Currently the Director of Evangelization, Family Life, and Pastoral Ministries at her Lafayette, Ind., parish, the Serran administrator praised the work being done in the diocese to foster and affirm vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Dr. Roat told the North Texas Catholic she recently asked U.S. clubs to fill out a survey detailing their activities. Not only did Renée Underwood, the Fort Worth club president, fill out the survey, she added three pages of comments and included newsletters from all three clubs.

Vocation ministries require prayer

“Looking at what these three clubs do is amazing,” Dr. Roat said, noting the wide-ranging discernment and awareness programs. “Not all dioceses are doing this. It’s wonderful when you see a diocese doing all these wonderful things and have a bishop who is supporting vocations.”

Because the Serra Clubs in the diocese are so innovative regarding the apostolate’s first two missions — promoting vocations to the priesthood and religious life and supporting existing vocations — Dr. Roat spoke to the gathering about a third goal: encouraging personal holiness. During her talk, she touted the Serra Club’s primary resource, a handbook dedicated to improving each member’s spirituality through prayer, exercises like the Liturgy of the Hours, and other avenues to a Christ-centered life. She also recommended daily Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, retreats, and participating in parish ministries.

Dr. Roat reminded her listeners that a successful vocation ministry requires contemplation.

“Each of us is called to be a saint deeply in love with God and showing that love in service to our neighbor,” she commented. “Inspired by our patron, St. Juniperra Serra, let us continue to move forward on that path to holiness and be the saints God has called us to be.”

Celebrating 90 years

The only lay organization aggregated to the Vatican for vocation work, Serra International is found in 48 countries and boasts 13,000 members. Started in Seattle by four men in 1935, the organization is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. There are 189 U.S. clubs with 8,000 members. There are 158 Serrans in the Diocese of Fort Worth.

Despite a plethora of activities like the Vocation Awareness Weekend, priest/religious appreciation dinners, monthly meetings, and outreach to seminarians, “the Serra Club is one of the best kept secrets in the Catholic Church,” according to Underwood.

“Almost weekly, I encounter people who tell me they’ve always been Catholic but never heard of us,” explained the Fort Worth club president who is also chief development officer of the diocesan Advancement Foundation. “It’s important to get more members and lay leaders to commit to this mission so we can accomplish our goals.”

Bishop Michael Olson and Father Brett Metzler, director of vocations, would like a thriving vocation ministry in every parish with a plan for year-round awareness programs.

“The Serra Club can’t do it all,” Underwood pointed out. “We’re just catalysts who provide resources. We need parish workers.”

Increasing membership, parish involvement, and awareness are Underwood’s key priorities. The rapidly growing diocese also needs Serra Clubs in the Wichita Falls and Denton areas, she said.

“Anyone interested in organizing a Serra Club in their part of the diocese can contact me,” she said. “I have priests willing to charter a new club. They need to know the lay leaders who will work to make it happen.”

The need is great

Friends invited Jim Finkenkeller to join the Arlington Metro Serra Club in 2022. The Most Blessed Sacrament parishioner admits he didn’t know much about the group before then.

“Once I joined, I learned about the mission and need for vocations,” said Finkenkeller, who is beginning his second year as the club’s president. “The need for priests and religious is so great, we should do as much as we can to encourage more vocations and support priests and religious as they continue their vocations.”

He’s excited about the diocesan initiative to establish vocations ministries in every parish.

“As our Arlington club continues its strategic effort to bring the culture of Serra to the parishes we serve, we will be able to work with the vocations ministries to significantly increase the mission of Serra, membership in our club, and ultimately, vocations.”

First-time president of the Northeast Fort Worth Club, Taylor-Hunt hopes to do the same. A cradle Catholic, she loved the sisters who taught her religious education classes.

“The Church needs good priests and nuns,” she explained. “It’s important to put that thought into the minds of young people.”

God calls us to encourage vocations.

“If it wasn’t for the priests, we wouldn’t have the sanctity of the Eucharist,” reasoned the Northeast Fort Worth Club president. “If you know someone thinking about the priesthood or religious life, just invite them to ‘Come and See’ one of our vocation programs. It can make a difference.”

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