California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Friday to replace a statue of St. Junípero Serra at the state Capitol with a monument to the state’s indigenous peoples.
Newsom’s signature Sept. 24 was widely expected after Assembly Bill 338 (AB 338) was passed with almost unanimous approval by legislators in both of the state’s chambers. The statue of the Catholic saint, canonized by Pope Francis in 2015, had stood in Sacramento’s Capitol Park since the 1960s. It was toppled by protestors last year in one of several attacks on statues of the Spanish saint across California amid widespread protests over racial injustice in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The proposal had come under heavy criticism from historians and Catholics in the state, including California’s two Catholic archbishops, Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco and José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, who in a Sept. 12 Wall Street Journal op-ed asked that both the proposed statue to the state’s native peoples and the Serra statue be allowed to stand at the Capitol.
The Associated Press reported Sept. 24 “it could be awhile before the monument is built” due to the permits needed to begin construction.
Full story at Angelus News.
I’ve yet to see a Colonel Sanders statue toppled or defaced — white hair, white suit, white man. Must be KFC’s generous EBT policy.
I’m going to start dedicating my SoulCore rosaries to the intention of California being a welcome place for the Catholic faith once again. Our group loves praying the rosary this way.
Omgosh… I can’t believe someone else is into praying the rosary with soulcore too! I do it every week with a group of women. Well, a gay guy joins us too but he’s like one of the girls. I just find it so fulfilling and rejuvenating. I have to admit though that the sorrowful mysteries can be tough, but that’s the way it’s supposed to be! Yay girl! Let’s storm heaven with our prayers!
No Stacy, a gay guy is not just like one of the girls, and it’s a problem that you think he is. Pray for understanding that a homosexual lifestyle leads to hell, his soul is in jeopardy, right there under your nose and you can help him. Do it girl, Yay!
You should not presume that a gay “guy” that prays the rosary is leading a lifestyle that leads him to hell. There are gay Catholics who obey the Church’s moral law.
You are assuming that because he prays he is chaste. Stacy’s flippant attitude toward this homosexual man needs adjustment, she is wrong to cast him as the Will to her Grace.
Ok I never watched that show, so I don’t know what that means.
I assumed nothing. Certain heterosexual lifestyles lead to hell, too.
Moms Care– But Stacy never said the “gay guy” was leading a homosexual lifestyle. If he is in a Rosary group, and loves Our Blessed Mother– maybe he is committed to Chastity, for love of Our Lady! Also– what on earth is a “Soulcore Rosary Group?” Please explain.
Without knowing more details, it’s impossible to judge as you have, Ms. Moms. Just because someone is gay doesn’t mean he’s living the “homosexual lifestyle.” That’s an assumption on your part. The Church teaches gay feelings are not sinful. They are like a temptation that shouldn’t be acted on. So the fact that this guy is gay, in itself, does not warrant the judgmental, self-righteous conclusions you felt compelled to make about choices he may or may not be making.
My congratulations to Stacy and her group for welcoming this man to pray with them. Would that the Church were more welcoming of all God’s children, like Fr. James Martin advises. Stacy is truly building a bridge.
Gays are known to be conversational and emotional, and women like conversation and emotions, so maybe that’s how he’s like one of the girls.
And you are assuming that he is not living a homosexual lifestyle, and you stereotype by asserting the conversational and emotive skills of one who is homosexual.
Look to the beam in your own eye, and don’t hold out Fr, James Martin as a role model concerned with getting homosexuals to heaven, he excuses sin and calls it good. Think twice indeed.
Oh no, another falsely compassionate Catholic prepared to accept the James Martin philosophy. You know the truth but refuse to accept it, so collectively, we walk away from you.
Typical for liberals at this site to go on and on about gay things, but never as much fire about belief in The Real Presence or protecting pre-born children.
The people who go on and on about gay things on this site aren’t the liberals. And pretty much all of us believe in the real presence and are anti-abortion, but not every sentence has to be about the Eucharist the way it seems every post becomes about “gay things”. Some people are just obsessed about certain things.
Stacy was first to bring it up. Why did she even mention that he is “gay”? Why did she not just say for example, “We also have a young man who says the Rosary with us? Perhaps he is hanging around women to avoid temptations, but perhaps he told her about it in private, but did not want the whole world to know that he was “hankering for Harry” over there.
A correction: I should have put quotation marks after the word “us” in the the beginning of the third line of my last post, Oct.1 at 9:08 pm.
Moms Care, you should be supportive of Stacy, and her Rosary group! Not nice at all, to jump down her throat! You never went to her class, and probably never will, so you have no idea in the world what it’s all about, or the “gay guy,” and his life, either! He may be getting lots of support for leading a good chaste life, following Christ and Our Lady! It is terrible, that so many gays are leading sinful lives! But there are huge numbers of heterosexual people, all ages, who are in “shack-up” relationships! It would be lovely, to find a nice exercise class with devout Catholics who actually practice their faith! Or even just any kind of class, with good people, leading morally good, decent lives! America desperately needs a total re-evangelization, back to her Christian foundations!
Stacy should have clarified what she meant by “gay guy”. Labeling a person by his/her temptations is not a good thing to do, If he has clearly stated that he is living a serious sinful lifestyle, he should be told it is against Church teaching. If he insists you approve of what he is doing, one should not have him as a close friend.
“Bad companions corrupt good morals” as the Holy Bible says. We are not Jesus Christ who was God incarnate and could not sin, we are human and can sin.
SoulCore is a Catholic knockoff of yoga. Good that it doesn’t invoke prayers to Hindu gods, but when the roots are in pagan religion, you gotta be careful.
They say it is not yoga but it is praying the Rosary while you exercise. If this gets you to pray the Rosary when you don’t already pray it, I guess that is good. It seems to be the whole rosary for almost an hour which is also good.
I know people who pray the Rosary while they drive or take a walk, and I could never do that.
My 5 decade rosary was taking 40 minutes so I started using a 15 minute rosary video on Youtube and that has helped me stay focused. I have added some scriptural rosary prayers (just one sentence at the beginning of the decade) and that has helped too.
I think if it gets you to exercise it would also be beneficial but I am too out of shape to do it. I notice they have a chair workout too and they cost about what other exercise videos cost.
Since we are supposed to pray ceaselessly, I can’t see anything wrong with praying while you exercise.
If someone was doing yoga and switched to this, it would definitely be a good step in the right direction.
The roots of “SoulCore” are in Yoga? Is it a physical exercise group, that has to do with cardio or “core” exercises? And then you say the Rosary after the class? Does the class meet at a church? Lots of churches have exercise classes for health. Even “Chair Exercise” classes for Seniors who can’t do much. To add a Rosary would be just beautiful! I would like to know more!
Christi, Google!
Good idea! Well, I just Googled SoulCore, and it is an exercise class started in Indiana, in which two nice young Catholic girls lead the class in saying the Rosary, as they do gentle exercises, in a prayerful manner. One of the girls has a brother who is a priest. It looks nice, but I don’t think I could do this! Some people like to say the Rosary while they do other things, like walking, driving, or just anything. I like to focus on only one activity, just one thing at a time! We all just signed up with our Archbishop, for his new program, to pray the Rosary and fast, with the intention of the conversion of Nancy Pelosi. Well, I could add a short, daily brisk walk to this regimen, and do that before praying the Rosary. Good idea!
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Newsome signs bill to remove statue of Padre Serra from the Capitol. He’s bought into the “woke” crap that has destroyed the lives of many living people today and the truth about Catholic Saints and many others.
I once had to remind a woman that Serra was Hispanic. She responded: “No he wasn’t! He was SPANISH!” The ignorance of some of these people is astounding.
A large Calvary Church near me had a guest speaker, a historian who talks about truth and history. I’m a Catholic Priest, so I don’t agree with everything they say at that Church, but this was an excellent talk on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/YzztOzJ2IXQ
Thank you for that post, Fr. John Higgins. Most Christians have all figured out who is behind a lot of this statue smashing and iconoclasm that has been going on.
That’s Dave Barton of Wallbuilders. Excellent resource.
https://wallbuilders.com/
This is our leadership…..NO GOD. Please God help the United States of America and stop all of the bad people in charge.
Another victory for the California Ruling Class. How much more hate will the people of California allow before they wake up?
Immature “hippie politicians” need to grow up and accept American history, and the history of our state, exactly “as is,” and be proud of it! They need to see history from an objective, adult point of view! Newsom’s predecessors, born and raised long before the filthy, lawless 1960s “hippie era,” would be so ashamed of him!
May the entire state of California be first in line to receive God’s Justice and Wrath
What do you think this is?
When San Francisco is reduced to vapors then I will know Our Lord’s wrath has visited the wretched state of California
Who are you to hold God to your standards?
For that expression of pure Charity, many thanks, dude.
I have no Charity for the satanic state of California, no more mercy only Divine Justice may it endure forever and your welcome btw
Bohemond, much of the time I agree with you, but think about what you have just said. You are beginning to sound like the Prophet Jonah (Jonas). What if there are ten righteous men still left in San Francisco?
For those who might not remember what happened with the Prophet Jonah, God sent him to Nineveh to call the wicked city to repentance. He did not want to go, but finally did what God wanted him to do, and his preaching worked. But when the Ninevites repented in sack cloth and ashes, Jonah was upset that God had not destroyed them.
Anne TE, do you believe that God’s patience is eternal, even Our Lady has warned us time is running out. Those who dont repent deserve God’s wrath and it has been well earned.
Behemond I never said I believed God’s patience is eternal. I was just telling you to be careful not to indict the whole city of San Francisco and want it vaporized. Do you want such people as Fr. Illo and Archbishop Cordileone vaporized too? I really don’t think so. I told you what I needed to hear myself also, as I have felt the same way you just did at times, until the Good Lord knocked some sense into my head.
I’m beginning to feel that, for the sake of the country and for the sake of the Church, I should never vote for a “Catholic” politician again.
If they are pro-choice, no. If they betray God and they betray the Church, they are going to betray the country or the state or the county or the city or you, too.
This nonsense has been going on for several years now. Where have our Bishops and Archbishops been? All I hear is the sound of crickets. If our Catholic leaders spoke out clearly with one voice in support of St. Junipero Serra, I suspect our politicians would be far more reluctant to attack us. Same goes for abortion.
TO XAVIER: Where have the bishops been, you ask. At the lodge.
Ba Da Bing! Right to the heart of it, well done Roberta.
Well, ain’t you the bearer of Good News!
Clearly I am living rent free in your head, Vault! Read my comments with an open mind and heart, and learn! You’re welcome!
This is the letter that I sent to Governor Newsom just now:
Recently you signed Assembly Bill 338 (AB 338) enacting a process that would remove the statue of Padre Junipero Serra and replace it with a monument to Indigenous peoples.
While it is wonderful that we are honoring the first humans who lived in what we now call “California” I see a real prejudice against Catholics and a twisting of history in this. I understand that is it quite popular to believe that Padre Serra and other folks from history, like Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrims and the Spanish who founded St. Augustine in Florida were monsters who caused horrible atrocities equal to if not worse than Adolf Hitler and his thugs. But the fact is that these stories are simply not true and more than the stories of all Irish being drunks or all Italians being violent mafia or all Priests being predators all Mexicans being… well, I could go on and on with the stereotypes, but I am sure you are smart enough to know prejudice and bigotry when you see it.
Or are you?
https://www.cal-catholic.com/newsom-signs-bill-to-remove-serra-statue-from-state-capitol/
Fr. John Higgins
12348 Paramount Blvd.
Downey, CA 90242
Might want to cc Archbishops Gomez and Cordileone and the USCCB. Of course, they’re sure to miss the irony.