The following comes from a May 2 LA Times article by Harriet Ryan:
Pope Francis weighed in on a thorny topic in California history Saturday when he spoke at length at a Rome Mass about Father Junipero Serra, the controversial California mission founder set to become America’s first Latino saint later this year.
Addressing an audience that included many American priests, including Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, the pope referred to the 18th century Franciscan priest as “one of the founding fathers of the United States” and praised his willingness to abandon the comforts and privileges of his native Spain to spread the Christian message in the New World.
“I wonder if today we are able to respond with the same generosity and courage to the call of God,” Francis said during a homily at Rome’s American seminary, the Pontifical North American College.
Francis will formally declare Serra a saint in September during the Washington, D.C., leg of his first visit to the United States. Although the Vatican has canonized Americans before, Serra will be the first saint canonized on U.S. soil.
In California, Serra has been criticized by native American activists for his role in a Spanish colonial system that mistreated and displaced indigenous people, and some have accused him of forcing people to convert to Catholicism. The state Senate voted last month to replace a statue of Serra in the U.S. Capitol with astronaut Sally Ride.
Francis did not address directly the controversy in his remarks, but he said the priest was among missionaries “who brought the Gospel to the New World and, at the same time, defended the indigenous people against abuses by the colonizers.”
I thought Fr. Serra was born in Petra, Majorca, Spain.
He was of Spanish descent, not Latin American descent, even though he lived in Mexico for a while, and most of his adult life was in CA.
Reference from the article: “… Father Junipero Serra, the controversial California mission founder set to become America’s first Latino saint later this year.”
The way I understand it, Latino is a term used to refer to people of partial or full Latin American extraction. I believe the proper term should be “Hispanic”.
Ray Heinz
GOD bless the holy father.
Yes, God bless the Holy Father in keeping it simple.
We Catholics must rise above the need for popularity. Jesus our Lord was accused and mistreated and was voted to be wrong by the authorities of His times. Blessed Junipero is in great company with his Master. Jesus told us to be careful when”men speak well” of us.
Blessed Junipero is a saint. I was a witness to a miracle God worked through his intercession. There was a man in our diocese that was a drug abuser. He took drugs and was dying so his “friends” abandoned him to avoid problems. He was found near death at a park by some kind soul. He was rushed to the hospital and was sent by helicopter to a major hospital. The doctor that was in charge put him on life support and he was in a coma with no hope for recovery. He was in this state for more than a week. A family member of his went to the tomb of Blessed Junipero to pray for a miracle. After a time in prayer asking the prayers of the then Venerable this person called their family at the hospital and at the moment of prayer at the tomb the sick man came out of his coma and is still alive today.
When the family contacted the bishop of Monterey at that time he did not think it a good idea to promote Serra as working a miracle for a drug abuser. I know that his family still feels it was and is a miracle. I agree. It was a hopeless time but through Blessed Junipero’s prayers God was merciful.
Thanks be to God. So you see Serra is a saint and his miracle for sainthood is already there!