{"id":223198,"date":"2025-09-13T09:25:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T09:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/223198\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T09:25:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T09:25:23","slug":"philly-serra-club-president-honored-for-promoting-vocations-in-his-cuban-homeland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/223198\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly Serra Club President Honored for Promoting Vocations in His Cuban Homeland"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Jorge Ignacio Fernandez (left) and Cardinal Juan Garc\u00eda Rodr\u00edguez, Archbishop of Havana, Cuba.<\/p>\n

By Jay Sorgi \u2022 Posted September 12, 2025 <\/p>\n

Jorge Ignacio Fern\u00e1ndez<\/a> is on a mission to increase vocations to the priesthood not only in the Philadelphia region, but also in his homeland of Cuba.<\/p>\n

For his efforts over many years to promote vocations, Serra International has honored Fern\u00e1ndez, the president of the Serra Club of Philadelphia<\/a>, with its Missionary of St. Jun\u00edpero Serra Award.<\/p>\n

\u201cLo and behold, I find myself well on our way to establishing this year, God willing, the first chapter of Serra in Havana since 1959, the revolution,\u201d said Fern\u00e1ndez, who lives in Bucks County and attends Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Buckingham.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s coming back home in the name of the Lord. It\u2019s just a true gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Serra organization, whose local chapters around the world promote vocations to the priesthood, awarded him the honor at their June convention in Kansas City.<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez, however, wasn\u2019t there to receive it. He was working in Cuba at the time growing the religious life in the country where he was born.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour diligent and delicate work in preparing the ground for a Serra Club in Havana, Cuba, is admirable,\u201d said Dr. Moira McQueen, past president of Serra International. \u201cYour generosity to the Cuban people over many years through your foundation is extraordinary, and a wonderful example to us all about the importance of faith, hope, and charity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s mission stems from his family\u2019s journey from his hometown of Havana. They escaped the communist Cuban government of Fidel Castro in the mid-1960s with what Fern\u00e1ndez called \u201cthree kids, three suitcases and three dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fled harm\u2019s way. My family was on the wanted list,\u201d he explained, because they were wealthy. \u201cThose days were pretty ugly getting out. People were being arrested in the airport before they got on the plane.\u201d
His deeply Catholic family came through Miami to Philadelphia and established roots in the Delaware Valley.<\/p>\n

Later his business career included numerous ventures with Fortune 100 companies and success in real estate, but his impact on the Catholic Church in Philadelphia came in several capacities including the Serra Club of Philadelphia, to which he was invited a little more than 10 years ago. He became president in 2021<\/a>.
\u201cSerra\u2019s focus is on religious vocations, and we\u2019re laser-focused on supporting the seminarians and the priests,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cWithout them, we don\u2019t have the Eucharist, we don\u2019t have the Mass, and we don\u2019t have our Church.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also has played key roles with CARITAS Cuba, Catholic Relief Services, and Christ for Cuba, aiding his homeland where Castro for many years had attempted to make Cuba an atheist country.
Fern\u00e1ndez first returned to his homeland about 30 years after he and his family escaped, in an effort to support the Catholic faith there.<\/p>\n

\"Fern\u00e1ndez,\"<\/p>\n

Jorge Ignacio Fern\u00e1ndez, president of the Serra Club of Philadelphia, was awarded with the 2025 Missionary of St. Jun\u00edpero Serra Award.<\/p>\n

It became an experience of overcoming great fear to live his faith and his calling to serve, as he was returning to a land still ruled by the Castro regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the honor and the privilege to go back home to Cuba in 1998 with the late, great St. John Paul II, and it was there that I had a life-changing experience,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe landed in the same Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed International Airport terminal where we left on that ugly day where the Russians were arresting people at the airport, strip searching. It was deja vu. I said, \u2018My God, what am I doing?\u2019<\/p>\n

When I went to get my passport, I said, \u2018Oh, my God, this is it. I\u2019m going to get arrested.\u2019 I gave my passport, and it was an American passport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez said the passport agent called for his supervisor, who took his passport.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018Welcome to Cuba. Cuba will always be your homeland,\u2019\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez recalled.<\/p>\n

He shared how St. John Paul\u2019s words helped him believe God was carrying him during those tense moments.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis magic words, \u2018Do not be afraid,\u2019 really resonated with me because I truly was afraid of going back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez has become even bolder in his calling to grow the Catholic faith in his homeland of Cuba. He has traveled back there countless times on various missions including yearly trips with the Philadelphia Boys Choir from 1999-2001, a trip with former President Jimmy Carter in 2002, and papal visits by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 and Pope Francis in 2015.<\/p>\n

He continues his mission in Havana, aiming to grow the priesthood there as he is in Philadelphia through the Serra Club.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod willing, we\u2019ll make an impact,\u201d \u00a0Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cWe\u2019re inviting these young men that have a calling to respond, and the Serra Club will be there to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jorge Ignacio Fernandez (left) and Cardinal Juan Garc\u00eda Rodr\u00edguez, Archbishop of Havana, Cuba. By Jay Sorgi \u2022 Posted…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":223199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,19494,121092,1448,2830,1311,121093,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-223198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-jay-sorgi","10":"tag-jorge-ignacio-fernandez","11":"tag-pa","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-philadelphia","14":"tag-serra-club-of-philadelphia","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115196273000790639","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}