The pope should not grant sainthood to a brutal missionary
Native American groups accuse the pope of ignoring their concerns about Serra, a Franciscan missionary accused of atrocities. Photograph: Riccardo De Luca/AP
Junipero Serra brutally converted Native Americans to Christianity and wiped out entire cultures, languages and villages in the process.
J unipero Serra, the Franciscan friar who Pope Francis plans to canonize during his first trip to the United States this week, advocated and oversaw the whipping, beating, flogging and extermination of Native Americans in what is now California. Serra, the founder of the states first mission in San Diego in 1769, will be the first saint canonized on American soil.
At that time, according to records kept by the missions, the states indigenous population ranged from 133,500 to 350,000. As a result of enslavement, malnutrition and the introduction of diseases, the missions were responsible for the deaths of 62,000 indigenous Californians from 1769 to 1833. This genocide is just another disgraceful example of Native American history that is forgotten, whitewashed or ignored.
My ancestors and many living family members are descendants of the Pomo tribe of Northern California. The only reason Im here today writing this piece is because my ancestors didnt live near any of the states 21 Franciscan missions.
Elias Castillo , a three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, spent seven years researching and reading books published by the Franciscans, which include letters written by Serra himself. In his book A Cross of Thorns: The Enslavement of Californias Native Americans by the Spanish Missions, Castillo doesnt mince words when he describes the missions as death camps run by friars where thousands of Californias Indians perished. In letters, Serra wrote that he considered the indigenous population to be barbarous pagans, and that only Catholicism could save them from evil.
When the King of Spain sent Jesuit priests to prevent Russian fur hunters from claiming the region, he directed them to educate and baptize native peoples so they could become Spanish citizens, but Serra had other plans. He brutally converted them to Christianity and wiped out entire cultures, languages and villages in the process.
Under Serras leadership, soldiers violently captured Californias Native Americans, forced them into labor and imprisoned them until they died. According to Castillos exhaustive research, they were beaten, flogged and placed in shackles that didnt allow them to bend their knees for days. If they grieved over the loss of loved ones, they were whipped. Mothers who had miscarriages were not allowed to mourn; instead, they were accused of having abortions and then forced to hold a carved figure of an infant while standing outside of a mission church.
Women are never whipped in public, but in an enclosed and somewhat distant place that their cries may not excite a too lively compassion, which might cause the men to revolt, wrote a shocked French admiral Captain Jean-Francois de Galaup during a visit to Mission Carmel in 1786.
Castillo estimates that very few Californians today are aware of this brutal history, which he says has been deliberately falsified by the state of California. Fourth graders are taught that Serra was a peaceful man who cared for the indigenous population. Tourists who visit the states missions learn that Serras relationship with Native Americans was based on mutual respect.
Seeing Serra glorified on historical monuments, school, highway and road signs, and statues, including one inside of the United States Capitol building , is a painful reminder for Native Americans of this tragic history. In May, Pope Francis referred to Serra as one of the founding fathers of the United States. How can this be when hundreds of thousands of people lived here for generations before he arrived?
To see Serra canonized will only deepen generations of trauma among Native Americans. It is an illness that persists in many of our tribal members today, writes Valentin Lopez, Chair of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band of the Coastanoan/Ohlone people in the forward of Cross of Thorns. Issues of alcoholism, drug addiction, suicide and poverty among our people are directly linked to this history.
Rather than turn Serra into a saint on Wednesday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC, the Pope, the Catholic Church, and the state of California should listen to Native groups protesting the canonization and instead use this moment to tell the truth about the missions and their deadly impact on Californias Native Americans. Pope Francis should meet with members of the Californias tribes, acknowledge these atrocities and allow healing and reconciliation to begin. Its long overdue.
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The sad and sick fact is that most Catholic Missionaries of the time all over the world were religious zealots and extreme in their cruelty and forced "conversions" or death views. If the Pope wants to elevate someone to Sainthood, this ain't the one.
He should, will he...NO.
George Carlin said that religion is like a lift in your shoe. It's there when you need it. But that we shouldn't go trying to nail shoes on the Natives feet. But that's what the Church did.
And you're right, he will not use this as a teachable moment. Something all Popes have been sadly lacking in over thousands of years. Hell, most of the so-called "Saints" of the Catholic Church were anything but.
A few weeks ago in Bolivia the Pope begged for forgiveness from the Indigenous people there, for the horrors heaped on them by the Catholic Church.
Yet, a couple of weeks later he comes to America and is about to canonize one of the main perpetrators of those horrors.
I'm sure that he really meant what he said in Bolivia. /s
I can only agree, Randy.
Wow , so you're taking a "missionary position" ?! How was it ?
What do you expect from a guy that just spent the last couple days kissing commies butts.
Born in Buenos Ares - an heavily Germanic influenced city. Would that have any influence on his decision?
It doesn't matter only to RC's Cerenkov. That is what the article is about.
I'm not a RC either, but it does matter to me. To millions it's not a worthless title.
Cerenkov, did you read the article? If you did, did you understand the protest against canonizing Serra as a saint?....Of course it matters to me.
And it has a hell of an effect both inside andoutside the church.
And it has a hell of an effect both inside andoutside the church.
That is very true. The very amount of news generated by the Pope's visit shows that his influence spread well beyond the Catholic Church itself. Otherwise his visit would only be covered by the EWTN. That's why the Pop has an even greater responsibility NOT to raise this monster to Sainthood. NOT to officially deny and cover up history again.
Cerenkov,
You are kind of missing the point. If you are trying to spread good will among all (which this pope is professing to do), then he needs to recognize what this man did to indians. Do you also think that that the church shouldn't make right the cover up of molestation?
Cerenkov, you really are missing the point.
Why give good advice to the Pope ? If he lacks the perspective to understand the offense let him slip on the historical banana peel ...
However his canonization DOES influence non-Catholics. It is not just a matter within the Catholic Church. Not believing that it has a supernatural meaning is irrelevant. It legitimizes, in the minds of Catholics and many non-Catholics alike, what this monster did. It lies about history of California, Catholic missionaries and the Church in general. It's the 21st century and it's time we told history the way it really was, instead of sugar coating it for any reason.
Castillo estimates that very few Californians today are aware of this brutal history, which he says has been deliberately falsified by the state of California. Fourth graders are taught that Serra was a peaceful man who cared for the indigenous population. Tourists who visit the states missions learn that Serras relationship with Native Americans was based on mutual respect.
THIS must be stopped. The lies have to end because they are given as a part of American history that is taught in public schools and not just Catholic history. So yes, it does affect anyone who believes in the truth.
So how, Randy, do you recommend that it be stopped?
The only thing I can think of won't work. That he be shamed into not doing it. The problem is that it's probably too late to stop him.
I thought you were an atheist, Randy?
Let bygones be bygones, I say.