Serra Club of Council Bluffs represents all the parishes in Council Bluffs and the western part of the Des Moines Diocese.

Its mission is threefold:

1. To encourage vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life
2. To support the ordained priests and deacons in their ministry
3. To help its members live a holy life

The Serra Club of Council Bluffs was chartered on August 31, 1962. It is a chapter of Serra USA and part of Serra International. Serra clubs take their name from Saint Junipero Serra, the 18th-century Spanish Franciscan missionary to Mexico and California. Called by Pope Francis “the Great Evangelizer of the West,” our patron founded 19 missions along the West Coast that grew into many of California’s greatest cities.

Serra USA began in 1935 in Seattle, Washington, by a small group of Catholic laymen who saw the need to foster vocations to religious life, both by recruiting vocations and by supporting those in their active careers. Serrans are men and women of all ages and from all walks of life. Members range from retirees and stay at home parents, singles and married couples, young adults, to all varieties of professionals including business people, teachers, nurses, clerks, blue-collar workers, doctors, lawyers, and more. Over 1,100 Serra clubs have been chartered in 46 countries around the world, made strong by over 20,000 members.

We are involved with several activities throughout the year. We help celebrate Priesthood Weekend by posting notices in parish bulletins and banners outside of the 4 Council Bluffs parishes and at St. Albert Schools. We send back-to-school cards, birthday cards and Christmas cards with monetary gift cards to our seminarians. We send diaconate ordination cards and priesthood ordination cards with monetary gift cards. We also send birthday cards to priests active and retired in the community at the present or the past. We participate in a program called Adopt-a-Seminarian. We encourage adoration once a week for an hour to pray for our seminarians. There is a 31 Club for members to pray the Rosary for our seminarians, priests and other religious. We donate to the Diocese Des Moines Seminarian Fund each year. We also host and prepare a meal for 100 to 120 seminarians for the Institute for Priestly Formation Kick-off Dinner on Memorial Day for their summer program.

• We celebrate Mass, Adoration, Benediction and the Rosary on the first Saturday of the month at 8 am and fellowship in the Social Hall with pastries, coffee and juice after Mass at St. Patrick Church.
• We have our General Meeting with dinner, a program and business meeting on the second Thursday of the month after the 6 pm Mass in the Social Hall at St. Patrick Church.

For more information or to join, please contact Phil Caniglia at email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by calling 712-323-2236.