The Serra Clubs of the Archdioceses of Newark and Paterson are sponsoring the Sixth Annual Communion Brunch this Sunday, Sept. 21.
Mass will be offered by Monsignor Joseph Reilly, rector of the Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology, at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of Sorrows Church, located at 217 Prospect Street in South Orange. The brunch will follow in the Chancellor’s Suite in the basement of the Student Center.
The Chairman of this event is Joseph Pagano. Around 200 people are expected to attend. This year, President A. Gabriel Esteban is scheduled to speak at the brunch. Speakers in past years have included Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
All students are invited to attend the mass and the brunch. The cost of the brunch is $30 for adults and $15 for students. Reservations may be made by contacting Ray VanDyke at rpvand814@aol.com or by phone at 973-761-0070.
Rose Marie Deehan, event coordinator and president of the Serra Club of the Oranges, said, “our primary purpose is to pray for and encourage vocations to the priesthood.”
The South Orange resident added. “We’re trying to promote this [awareness] and this is why we have these events.”
The Serra Club International is holding this event to further its mission to promote religious vocation. According to the official website of Serra International, some objectives of the club include: fostering and promoting vocations to the ministerial priesthood in the Catholic Church, supporting priests in their sacred ministry and assisting members to recognize and respond in their own lives to God’s call to holiness.
The Serra Club International was founded in 1935 in Seattle, Wash. Since then, it has chartered 1,170 Serra Clubs in 46 countries on six continents. Youth clubs have not been introduced in any capacity near Seton Hall.
Deehan said, “We’ve never gotten it off the ground with students.”
She has been involved in the club since 1982, when women were first allowed to join. Although students cannot become members, they are encouraged to remember the mission of the Serra Club in their everyday lives.
Deehan encourages them to “pray for vocations, because we need them so desperately in the church.”
Emily Balan can be reached at emily.balan@student.shu.edu.
