In January of this year, during his flight back from the Philippines, Pope Francis announced that he is going to canonize Father Junipero Serra, one of the founders of California and originator of the mission system in both upper (the present day state of California and lower (Baja) California, Mexico. Serra died in Southern California in 1784.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the pope was chatting with reporters on the plane back to Rome when he announced his intention to by-pass the extra miracle usually required for canonization and proceed with the canonization of Blessed Serra because Serra was a great evangelizer. Pope Francis makes the point often that the Church must preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, boldly and tirelessly. Pope Francis’ announcement is going to again stir up a controversy that originally arose at Serra’s beatification.
Several indigenous groups in California claim that Serra was a brutal taskmaster who helped to enslave the Indians and forced them into the Catholic Faith. In other words, these groups are certain Serra was an agent of the conquistadores who were after land, money and power.
Junipero Serra was a Franciscan friar who left Spain and a comfy job as a theology professor to become a missionary in the mid-eighteenth century. He was thirty-six years old and had a gimpy leg when he disembarked from his ship and walked to Mexico City, a long, arduous journey. This guy was tough! He disciplined himself severely with scourgings and deprivations in an attempt to stay on the straight and narrow path. He was a natural leader, a powerful speaker and a tireless worker, all in all, a formidable presence wherever he went. He was going to advance the Gospel in the new world, or else!
Fray Junipero Serra did not spare the rod with children and adolescents –and even adults. In his day, the path to learning and Christian development was by discipline, often physical. Just as Serra had received discipline from adults in his development, he employed the same methods in his training of the Indians. He wanted to convert as many Indians as possible and bring them into the kingdom of God.
Perhaps, Pope Francis will use Serra’s canonization as an opportunity to ask for forgiveness of the First Nations of California for the excesses of the Catholic Church as it evangelized and established its missions. It won’t be the first time Pope Francis washed the Church’s soiled linens in a public forum. The pedophilia scandal and corruption in the Vatican curia are already in the laundry.