Fifty Years and Counting
In the late 1970s, Mr. Walter (Red) Sochacki began what is known today as the Vocations Bus Trip sponsored by the Serra Club of North-Minneapolis. It all started when students from Ascension Catholic School in North Minneapolis were taken to the McCarthy Gym at the St. Paul Seminary for an hour or two of swimming or playing in the gym. Red then started taking groups from other area catholic schools and added tours of the seminary facilities. They were blessed to have both a minor seminary, St. John Vianney (SJV), and a major seminary, St. Paul Seminary (SPS), both located on the campus of St. Thomas University in St. Paul, MN in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. It was what made the first bus trips, typically made up of 7th and 8th grade students, so successful.
During the 1980s, the Vocations Office of the Archdiocese and the Seminary started to provide speakers and tour guides for the visits. The focus of the visits became vocations awareness with the gym being an added attraction. Another important aspect of the bus trips, in those days, was an essay writing contest. Students were asked to write about what impacted them the most during the visit and what they learned. Reading student essays about how the trip opened their eyes to a religious vocation was very moving. The Holy Spirit was truly at work during every trip. Chaperones from the Serra Club, whether on their first trip, or those who were chaperones for many years, returned with something new each time. Truly, more was received than was given.
In the early 1990s, George Merriam took charge of the trips with help from Ellroy Wildhaber. A new format was developed for the trips with the help of Fr. Ubel and Fr. Mader, Co-Directors of the Vocations Office. Both priests were enthusiastic about the program. Each had participated as speakers for the groups when they were seminarians. Over time, the trips expanded with the boys and girls each having their own separate trip agendas. For the first time, the girls were able to visit the Dominican Sisters at Our Lady of Good Counsel Free Cancer Home and the Sisters of St. Peter Claver at St. Mary’s Mission Home. The boys continued to make separate visits to the seminaries. In 1998, Ellroy took over managing the trips up until 2007 when John Lacina took over.
Again, with the strong support of the St. Paul Seminary Vocations Director, Fr. Peter Williams the trips continued to be successful. John experimented with inviting homeschoolers on the trips although it was a real challenge logistically. In the mid-2000s, the boys’ trips were expanded beyond the seminaries to include men’s religious orders around the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. It was great for the boys to see a different path of discernment of a priest or brother in a particular religious order. This also helped to relieve some of the pressure put on both seminaries to host four to five trips per school year because the seminaries were experiencing great growth with many men discerning the priesthood. John noted, that in May 2009 Pope Benedict’s intention for the month was “Lay Vocation Promoters – that the laity and Christian Communities may embrace their responsibility for promoting vocations to Priesthood and religious life”. The program continued to be until COVID struck which resulted in the suspension of all further bus trips.
After COVID, vocations bus trips were re-instated in the fall of 2023. The Serra Club of North-Minneapolis added two new VPs of Vocations who are dedicated to continuing and managing the bus trips. The two VPs tag team the many logistics of coordinating with the seminaries, convents, religious orders, schools, chaperones, and buses. The Serra Club pays for all expenses associated with the trips with busing being its highest cost. In addition, cash awards are given for the First and Second place winners from each school for both the boys and the girls in the essay writing contest for a total of four awards at each school.
Vocations Bus Trips are now affectionately known as “the bus trips in the archdiocese.” Many are aware of these bus trips including Archbishop Hebda. John Lacina, who coordinated the trips between 2007 and 2019, summed it up when he said, “I’ve gone to confession, and afterwards realized my confessor had attended one of the trips!” Today, when Serrans speak with seminarians and priests throughout the diocese, many fondly remember going on the trip themselves back in their middle school years.
The Holy Spirit and prayer have made these trips a success. The hosts are always welcoming and find time in their busy schedules to accommodate the students. The support of the Vocations Office for fifty years has been a cornerstone. The schools eagerly look forward to the trips. It is not uncommon for schools to put in an early request for the bus trip to ensure a date in the calendar. The Serra Club of North-Minneapolis typically hosts ten different schools each year with four to five trips spread out in the fall and again in the spring. Religious education teachers at some schools have started to include these trips in their curriculum. They instruct the students about the places they will be visiting beforehand, so they are prepared to ask great questions.
Vocations Bus Trip activities vary by location. Every trip includes a tour of the facility, stories by seminarians or the religious, and question and answer sessions. If there is a food shelf at the site of a religious order, students may volunteer to help, work in the garden, or they may be able to interact with elderly residents through games and having lunch with them when at the Little Sisters of the Poor. Each student brings a bag lunch for the trip. Every trip includes an opportunity to attend Mass. The Serra Club invites the parish priest from each school to attend. A minimum of two chaperones from each school (male and female) are expected on the bus trip. Typically, three to five Serra Club members attend each trip as chaperones. In addition, some schools invite the parish youth director, seminarian(s), or those discerning the religious life to attend.
New this fall was a trip to Demontreville Retreat House in Lake Elmo, MN which received great reviews from all participants. Demontreville is a Jesuit retreat house that has provided silent retreats for men for over fifty years. It is staffed by three Jesuit priests who taught the students about their founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola. The Monastery of the Carmel of Our Lady of Divine Providence, an order of discalced Carmelites, is also located on the property. Because this monastery is cloistered, the girls were only able to speak to the nuns through a three-inch intercom in the wall. It was a unique experience for both the boys and girls to see religious orders in action.
The Serra Club of North-Minneapolis would be happy to assist other diocese Serra clubs interested in starting a program for vocations trips in their local area for . . . “The harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few.” (Luke 10:2-3) The Vocations Bus Trip is a wonderful apostolate in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Over the years and through the workings of the Holy Spirit, Serrans have truly witnessed the fruits of this labor.