President's Message 2010

MESSAGE FOR THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE SERRA INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENCY

Your Eminences,
Your Excellencies,
Dear Priests,
Dear brothers and sisters,

It is an honor for me to assume today the Presidency of Serra International, but it is also a great responsibility.

You can be sure that I will do my best effort in the work for Serra throughout the world.

This is a very special year for Serra, since it is the year of the Priesthood, proclaimed by the Holy Father for the reflection and appreciation of the gift of priestly ministry in the Church.

This year is aligned with the processes that we are living at a global level, along with the year of St. Paul which just concluded,
because his life and work have been reframing the process to follow Christ, which in the case of Serra and the Priests, it should be something special.

I have chosen a theme for my year of work as president of Serra:
“Ut unum sint”  -   “That they may be one”

Unity is essential, the Church is unity, and where there is division there is no Church.

For there to be unity, there must be charity. Charity, lived well, is the foundation of every apostolate.

Each and every one of us is different, and each person occupies a unique and special place in this world.

There must be dialogue, which makes us comprehend that the values that unite us are much more than the differences that divide us.

We must acknowledge our work in Serra as a mission sustained in a calling from God or vocation, and not just as the exercise of a free activity or apostolate.

It is about reaching a renovation, a conversion motivated not by necessity or fear for the lack of vocations, or our membership becoming diminished, but by the certainty of the love of God for each one of us.

We work for vocations because we know that God loves us, because there can’t be one person not loved and called by God. Deep down, every vocation is a matter of love.

It is time to work in unity, remembering that everything comes from God, we are merely His instruments.

It is time to join efforts, to work in unity with the Vocations Committees of our Dioceses, with our parishes, with the seminaries and with other lay associations.

Let’s join the proposals of the Church in our countries in order to impulse and promote this priestly year.

Only through unity we will gain the strength that our Church needs in these times of many challenges.

Serra and our Church will be renovated in the measure in which we renovate interiorly, that we may truly let ourselves be conquered by Christ.

Now more than ever is time to keep going always forward, never step back.

I commend my work and the work of Serra throughout the world to the sweet Lady of Heaven, the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, Patroness of Mexico, Empress of America.

Mary, mother of vocations, pray for us.

Alejandro Carbajal
Serra International President