Fr. He is the author of the award-winning books, Junípero Serra: California’s Founding Father (2013) and Children of Coyote, Missionaries of Saint Francis: Indian-Spanish Relations in Colonial California, 1769-1850 (2005). On Wednesday, Junípero Serra, the architect of the California mission system that converted 81,000 Native Americans to Christianity in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, will be canonized as a saint in Washington during Pope Francis' first visit to the United States. CNN Sans ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network. Ahead of the Mass on Wednesday, thousands lined up for hours in nightmarish lines snaking around parts of the Catholic University of America campus. Junípero Serra's road to sainthood is controversial for Native Americans. Serra, who came to California nearly 250 years ago, is the first saint to be canonized on U.S. soil. “We have gotten zero response from the Vatican, not a word. The missions ended up killing about 90% of the California Indians present at the time of missionization, creating all kinds of cultural and emotional baggage that we still carry to this day,” Miranda said. In California, protesters have toppled statues of Junipero Serra, whose missions brutalized Native Americans. As Sainthood Awaits, Fight Over Junipero Serrra's Legacy Continues Sept. 21, 2015 01:49. The Vatican has argued that Serra was "a man of his time" and should not be judged by modern standards. It is the first canonization on U.S. soil. “My objection and the objection of many California Indians is that he is being honored for in fact dishonoring many of our California ancestors. in 1988, when Serra was beatified by the Church, the third of four steps toward canonization, Pope John Paul II called Serra a “shining example of Christian Virtue and the Missionary Spirit.” Faith Local Junipero Serra Native Americans Pope Francis Sainthood A statue of Blessed Junipero Serra is seen in 2012 outside Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. Pope Francis will … Descendants of Mission Natives strongly oppose the canonization of Junipero Serra. Clearly the Pope believes that if Americans can embrace what is Spanish and Catholic in America’s past, they can become more accepting of our nation’s growing Latino and Catholic populations, irrespective of their origins. “Junipero Serra left his native land and its way of life,” Francis said in his homily during the canonization Mass at Catholic University in Washington. But more important, they also see an earlier American history, one that unfolded long before men such as Washington and Jefferson led the Revolution and even before the Puritans came to New England. This is how Father Serra signed his name on a letter about the value of prayer to another Franciscan friar, Fermin Francisco de Lasuen. CNN’s Michael Martinez and Ray Sanchez contributed to this report. Rejoice in the Lord always! Perhaps he will soon work another. Following is the text of the English translation of Pope Francis canonizing the Rev. Homily, Mass and Canonization of Fr. © 2020 Cable News Network. "9 Three years later and a year before Serra's death, Governor Pedro Fages, an old antagonist of Father Serra, complained that all missionaries were guilty of excessive severity toward their neophytes. thaths/Flickr Junipero Serra founded the California mission system that converted and killed so many Native Americans. When it came to Junipero Serra… He is also an OAH Distinguished Lecturer. In June 2015, after examining an updated “Positio” of 1000 pages that included new materials for Serra’s cause, the Cardinals in Rome voted to elevate Blessed Junipero Serra to sainthood. Miquel Joseph Serra was born on the Spanish island of Majorca in 1713. As a biographer of Serra, I am often asked to explain the seeming incongruity between Pope Francis’s progressive social views and his desire to canonize a man whose work among Indians contained the very excesses for which the Pope has recently apologized. The Disputed Canonization of Junipero Serra. For that accomplishment and others related to it, Serra was given an exalted place in the nation’s capital as one of two Californians represented in Statuary Hall (the other is Ronald Reagan). Fifty different tribes in California condemned the sainthood conferred on Serra, said Deborah Miranda, a literature professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia and a member of the Ohlone Costanoan Esselen Nation of California. Pope Francis is scheduled to bestow sainthood on California missionary Junipero Serra, the father of the state's missions. The goings-on in the streets of America and beyond has been an education for white people, especially to wake up to the reality of 500 years of racism and colonialism in America. Pope Francis held a canonization mass declaring Junipero Serra a saint at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. Father Junipero Serra … Junipero Serra sainthood cause just one miracle away. Pope Francis has said that he fast-tracked Serra's canonization by eliminating the need to show proof of two miracles because the missionary was such a great evangelizer. The Seven Steps to Sainthood for Junipero Serra. Serra brought Catholicism to California in the second half of the 18th Century. Here's another image of Junipero Serra from a first-edition book about the Spanish Franciscan friar entitled, "Relacion Historica de la Vida y Apostolica Tareas del Venerable Padre Fray Junipero Serra," by Father Francisco Palou. “He was excited about blazing trails, going forth to meet many people, learning and valuing their particular customs and ways of life.”, The Pope praised Serra’s treatment of Native Americans, saying that he “sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it.”, “Mistreatment and wrongs which today still trouble us,” Francis continued, “especially because of the hurt which they cause in the lives of many people.”. Born and raised in California, Steven W. Hackel is a professor of history at the University of California, Riverside. The evidence propelled Pope Francis, the first pontiff from Latin America, to share in the homily at Serra’s canonization on September 23, 2015 in Washington, D.C., “Junípero sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated … They left a lasting mark on American history and they will continue to shape its future. Twenty years later, at the age of fifty-six, Serra played a crucial role in the settlement and colonization of California, most notably as the founding father of the chain of Catholic missions that eventually extended from San Diego to just north of San Francisco. The Pope has planned to meet with Native Americans in Washington after the Mass, a Vatican official told CNN’s Delia Gallagher. In June 2015, after examining an updated “Positio” of 1000 pages that included new materials for Serra’s cause, the Cardinals in Rome voted to elevate Blessed Junipero Serra to sainthood. Success! The Catholic Church says that Serra worked miracles. The first page is in Spanish. Blessed Serra was thus deemed to have already met the sainthood criteria. In California, the establishment of twenty-one missions (nine by Serra) had disastrous results for Indians. Pope Francis presides over a canonization mass for Friar Junipero Serra at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington on Wednesday. As told by the Pope, Archbishop Gomez, and Dr. Carriquiri, Serra’s story—sailing across the Atlantic, venturing deep into Mexico on foot, journeying far north to California—is not just a life of Catholic heroism. "When the Spanish first came, it … Serra, in his view, was part of a colonial enterprise whose goal was the complete subjugation of California’s native peoples. Serra is far from the first controversial candidate for sainthood or canonization. Pope Francis will preside Wednesday over a mass of canonization for Junipero Serra, the man known for establishing missions throughout California. He is the editor of a volume of essays, Alta California: People in Motion, Identities in Formation (2010); the general editor of the Huntington Library’s Early California Population Project, a database of the baptism, marriage, and burial records from all of California’s twenty-one missions; and the director of the Early California Cultural Atlas, a spatial history of colonial California funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. “They’re interested in his record and in how many people he managed to convert and in the fact that he at this point in time is a famous Spanish person when the church really needs some positive PR, so they are purposely overlooking the deaths and the cultural genocide of Native American people because it’s to their benefit.”. Success! Pope Francis then issued the official decree announcing the canonization. Serra believed he was a more moderate version of the missionaries he saw in Mexico. Apostolic Journey of the Holy Father to Cuba, to the United States of America and Visit to the United Nations Headquarters on the occasion of his participation at the Eighth World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia: Holy Mass and Canonization of Blessed Fr. Thus they hope to shape contemporary immigration policy by a deeper reading of American history. They accuse in the 18th century Franciscan missionary … By Michele Jurich. Junipero Serra's Canonization and the Historical Record 1255 on the part of some Fathers and that we are all exposed to err in that regard. At the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C., 23 September 2015, the Holy Father delivered the following homily. America is a land of immigrants, and among the first and most important were missionaries like Serra. Soon Pope Francis will confer upon him a far greater honor, making him the first Hispanic saint from the territory of what is now the United States. We do not exist, it seems, in Pope Francis’ world,” Miranda said. “Junipero Serra left his native land and its way of life,” Francis said in his homily during the canonization Mass at Catholic University in Washington. Few images exist of 18th-century Spanish missionary Junipero Serra, a founding figure of the American West. On Wednesday, Pope Francis canonized Junipero Serra, an 18th-century Spanish missionary who introduced—or imposed—Catholicism among Native American communities in California. Serra’s life tells us that American history from its beginnings was diverse and multiethnic and that our national creation story is not just one of thirteen English colonies united in 1776 but that it extends far deeper into our past and includes Spanish missionaries and the Native Americans they encountered. There was no Jesus Christ lifestyle at the missions,” Lopez said, who has campaigned against sainthood for Serra. Rambusch was honored by the National Shrine’s commission to commemorate this historic event with a canonization banner. It represented Father Junípero Serra (1713–1784), the Mallorcan Franciscan who gave up a successful career as a priest and university professor in Spain in 1749 and sailed to Mexico to begin his life there as a missionary to Indians. Junipero Serra at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C., 23 September 2015 When men such as Pope Francis and Archbishop José Gómez of Los Angeles look at our nation’s past, they must marvel at the accomplishments of the Pilgrims and our traditional Founding Fathers. Those who wonder about this canonization and the proper place of founding fathers like Junípero Serra in American history should know that Serra rarely lost a fight, even when he faced enormous challenges. 4 Comments. It is their hope that Americans, when reminded of the Hispanic origins of much of this country, will reject the notion that Latino immigrants are somehow trespassers, even criminals, and embrace a more humane treatment of today’s immigrants. But debates about Serra’s Indian policy miss a fundamental message that the Pope intends to deliver through Serra’s canonization: our nation’s current wave of anti-immigration rhetoric flies in the face of America’s deep Hispanic and Catholic roots, and sadly it draws on a rich vein of anti-Catholicism in American history. While many leading American politicians are calling for a wall between the United States and Mexico, the deportation of millions of workers and their families, and the end of birthright citizenship, this pope and his advisors intend to confront those proposals by casting Serra, in effect, as the patron saint of immigration. By the time Francis arrived on campus, hordes of people were still waiting to clear checkpoints. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group) “[Pope Francis] has chosen to proceed with the canonization of Franciscan Missionary Junípero Serra — a man who played a pivotal role in the enslavement, torture, and other violent tactics perpetrated against Native peoples though the mission system in California,” the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) told ThinkProgress in a statement on Wednesday. "9 Three years later and a year before Serra's death, Governor Pedro Fages, an old antagonist of Father Serra, complained that all missionaries were guilty of excessive severity toward their neophytes. Junipero Serra, like many religious people, genuinely believed he knew the path to salvation and eternal life—and that was something he dedicated much of his adult life to sharing with Californians. Serra often corresponded about the California missions as he evangelized Native Americans in the late 1700s. Pope Francis on Wednesday canonized Junipero Serra, a Spanish missionary, a moment of deep pride for Latinos but a source of controversy for many Native Americans. The announcement that Pope Francis would canonize Blessed Junipero Serra during his visit to the United States in September took American Catholics by complete surprise. A week after the canonization, a statue of Serra in Monterey was decapitated. The Vatican has argued that Serra was "a man of his time" and should not be judged by modern standards. Many came overland from the south, spoke Spanish, and practiced Catholicism. Yet to the great disappointment of men such as Pope Francis, Archbishop Gomez, and Guzmán Carriquiri, the vice president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, nearly all of the thousands of Catholic missionaries who came to America have been forgotten, losers not in the contest for North America but in the subsequent battle for a place in American history. Pope Francis has established a reputation as advocate for the oppressed, but the canonization of Junipero Serra represents the celebration of Indigenous genocide, at the hands of the Church. Please click the button below to agree to our Terms and Conditions and acknowledge our Privacy Policy. The queues stretched to security checkpoints where those holding the 25,000 tickets distributed for the ceremony. This letter is written by Serra's own hand and is kept in a climated-controlled vault at Old Mission Santa Barbara. He became a Franciscan priest in 1730 and took the name Junipero, after a … Junípero Serra is depicted in a mosaic above the north arch of the East Portico of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception just a few feet from where Pope Francis will be seated at the canonization Mass for Serra. Federal law enforcement agencies conducting the searches included the Transportation Security Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “We’re stunned and we’re in disbelief,” said Valentin Lopez, 63, chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band located along Monterey Bay in California. Blessed Serra was thus deemed to have already met the sainthood criteria. Predictably, on the eve of his canonization, interest in Serra’s life runs hot, with some hailing his saintly life and others condemning his religious imperialism. Pope Francis has established a reputation as advocate for the oppressed, but the canonization of Junipero Serra represents the celebration of Indigenous genocide, at the hands of the Church. Father Junipero Serra to be elevated to sainthood, Pope Francis says A statue of Junipero Serra in the graveyard at Mission San Francisco de Asis, often called Mission Dolores. Pitted against the founders of Protestant New England and the signers of the Declaration of Independence, these Hispanic Catholics stood little chance. Timothy Kesicki, president of the Jesuit Conference in Washington, said many scholars acknowledge Serra’s complicated legacy. And across the missions, Franciscans like Serra endorsed the corporal punishment of Indians who did not abide by their wishes or policies. This national amnesia about the ways in which immigrant Catholic missionaries shaped much of what is now the United States has had deleterious effects on our nation’s character. Pope Francis. But debates about Serra’s Indian policy miss a fundamental message that the Pope intends to deliver through Serra’s canonization: our nation’s current wave of anti-immigration rhetoric flies in the face of America’s deep Hispanic and Catholic roots, and sadly it draws on a rich vein of anti-Catholicism in American history. For his defenders, Padre Serra was an intrepid evangelist and a model of Gospel living, while for his detractors, he was a shameless advocate of an oppressive colonial system that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Indians. In response to my writings in the DM on the truth of the role of Junipero Serra and the missions he founded in … Why the Serra Canonization? These migrant missionaries were serious colonizers in their own right even though their motives were not wealth or power or freedom of religious expression. This portrait has become one of the standard representations of him and was done in the early 1900s by a Mexican priest, Father Jose Mosqueda, who said he copied it from a work that could have been an original portrait of Serra from the 1750s. The St. Junípero Serra Canonization Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception made history by being the first to take place in the United States. Updated His supporters argue he defended the indigenous population against the excesses of colonialism. The Rev. It is also a reminder to our nation’s Nativists that Catholics and Hispanics have a long claim to American soil and its history. Their goals in crossing the Atlantic were to save souls and bring new regions into an expanding Spanish realm. Pope Francis then issued the official decree announcing the canonization. This article is more than 5 years old. Pope Francis canonized Junipero Serra while he was in Washington DC – the first time a saint was canonized on US Soil. WASHINGTON — More than 220 years ago, the California Indians evangelized by Father Junípero Serra declared him a saint. Medina is an Ohlone Indian who is opposed to the Pope's recent decision to grant sainthood to Father Junipero Serra, the founder of the California missions. They see a land in which, as early as the sixteenth century, Catholic missionary founding fathers such as Serra made first contact with America’s indigenous peoples. This is not a coincidence,” Gomez said at a news conference last month. I say it again, … #PopeinUS. A Saint With A Mixed History: Junipero Serra's Canonization Raises Eyebrows : The Two-Way Pope Francis announced he will elevate the influential missionary to sainthood … Pope Francis recently apologized to Native peoples in South America for past inhumane treatment and colonization; yet our ancestors were suppressed, dominated and enslaved by Serra and considered collateral damage to the Church and State. Pope Courts Controversy With Canonization of Junipero Serra. from Anar Virji. “We believe saints are supposed to be people who followed in the life of Jesus Christ and the words of Jesus Christ. 6:13 PM EDT, Wed September 23, 2015. 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