Sainthood for Father Serra sparks debate

PITTSBURGH When Pope Francis visited Bolivia earlier this year, he fiercely denounced colonialism past and present, but also admitted Catholic complicity: “I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offenses of the Church herself, but also for crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America.”

To some, however, Francis now stands accused of aggravating these historical wounds. During his visit to the United States, Francis will celebrate a Mass in Washington on Wednesday to proclaim the Rev. Junipero Serra as a saint.

Serra, an 18th-century Spanish missionary, launched a network of missions along the California coast. The Franciscan priest personally confirmed thousands of Native Americans into the Catholic faith.

Many view Serra as a patron of vocations, or the recruitment of new priests, friars and nuns and as a symbol of America’s vast Hispanic Catholic population.

But some Native Americans and others oppose the canonization.

“Serra’s canonization will tell the world that the mission system developed by Serra was holy,” said an open letter to Francis from Valentin Lopez, chairman of the California-based Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. “What the world will not be told is that the brutal methods and policies developed by Serra terrorized our ancestors.”

Serra insisted that Indian converts be confined to the missions and work the farms that sustained them, according to Steven Hackel, author of the 2013 biography, “Junipero Serra: California’s Founding Father.”

Mission priests flogged Indians for running away, drunkenness and sexual offenses, according to Serra biographies.

Epidemics of European diseases, which devastated native populations, were unintentional and mostly occurred after Serra’s death. But, said Hackel, Serra could have predicted this result of concentrating Indians into missions, as he had witnessed the same thing repeatedly in Mexico.

“He should have had that awareness,” said Hackel. “He was a smart man.”

But Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles calls Serra a “holy man” who “dedicated his life to bring ... the gospel to the people in America.”

Archbishop Gomez contended that Serra “defended the Native Americans from the abuses that were done by the Spanish military in California.”

The canonization has implications far beyond the Golden State.

The Argentine-born Francis will canonize Serra at the Basilica Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in the nation’s capital.

Serra presents the pope “with the opportunity to speak about a man who can be seen as an immigrant,” said Hackel, a history professor at the University of California, Riverside. “In some ways it’s a rebuke of that ... ugly immigration moment that we’re in.”

Serra International, a network of lay Catholics promoting vocations that was founded on the West Coast, chose the friar as its patron in the 1930s a time when even secular authorities in California were honoring Serra with a statue in the U.S. Capitol.

Pittsburgh, like many dioceses, has several Serra Clubs, and the Pittsburgh chapter recently held a dinner honoring newly ordained priests. Serra was “a wonderful priest,” said Jack Warwick, past president of the Pittsburgh chapter, who said he’s read a lot on Serra. “I’ve read more pros than cons,” he said.

The missionary is also the namesake of Serra Catholic High School in McKeesport, which has Franciscan roots.

Principal Timothy Chirdon will attend the Washington Mass with some other faculty and board members. The school also plans its own celebration Mass on Wednesday morning.

“It’s cause for great celebration of our faith and our identity,” Chirdon said.

He said students learn of Serra as an inspiration of service while also acknowledging the concerns about Serra’s legacy.

Chirdon said “the true spirit of the man” can be seen after Indians launched a deadly attack on Mission San Diego, when Serra pleaded for lenient punishment in hopes of the attackers’ conversion.

More than a dozen seminarians and teachers from St. Paul’s Seminary in East Carnegie will be attending the canonization Mass in Washington, including three priests who will help celebrate it with Francis.

“A canonization means they lived the Christian life heroically. That’s not saying they’re perfect,” said the Rev. Brian Welding, rector of the seminary.

The Rev. James Martin, editor at large of the Catholic magazine America and author of “My Life with the Saints,” looks forward to how Francis addresses Serra’s legacy.

“This is a pope who is not unaware of the long history of colonialism,” he said.

If Serra “did bad, even evil things, we need to look at it squarely,” said Father Martin. “On the other hand ... Junipero Serra worked with people who many people in Europe at the time thought did not have souls.”

Serra was born in 1713 in Majorca, Spain, and became a priest and university professor there.

In his mid-30s, he volunteered for missions in Mexico.

The charismatic Serra would preach revival-like sermons, dramatizing appeals for repentance by publicly whipping himself with chains and beating his chest with a stone. One worshiper died imitating him. Serra’s closest aide recorded such deeds in testament to his fervor.

After years of work in Mexico, Serra pioneered missions in California, walking long distances despite a chronically ulcerous leg. Serra died in 1784 at a mission in Carmel, Calif.

Serra did spar with Spanish military leaders, partly over soldiers’ killings and rapes of Indians.

But Serra also defended the Franciscans’ civil authority over Indians at the missions including the right to punish with the whip, said biographer Hackel.

Serra wrote that corporal punishment was “in uniformity with the law of nature concerning the upbringing of children” which is how he considered the Indians, Hackel said.

If anything, Hackel said, California Indians fared worse under 19th century United States rule.

White Americans “had a terrible time imagining a world with Indians in it,” said Hackel. Serra imagined “a world in where Indians will be transformed.”

But to call Serra a “great humanitarian” is “also a fantasy,” said Hackel.

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