The following is a Wall Street Journal opinion piece by Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco and Archbishop Gomez of Los Angeles:
California lawmakers have passed legislation to replace a statue of St. Junípero Serra at the Capitol in Sacramento with a new monument honoring the state’s native peoples. The Serra statue has been in storage since it was torn down by protesters in July 2020. A humble 18th-century Franciscan priest, Serra would surely approve of a new monument honoring the indigenous Californians he spent his life serving. Unfortunately, the legislature has gone further, slandering his name and pushing a false narrative about the mission period in California.
“Enslavement of both adults and children, mutilation, genocide, and assault on women were all part of the mission period initiated and overseen by Father Serra,” declares Assembly Bill 338, which passed both chambers by wide margins and now awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature. None of that is true. While there is much to criticize from this period, no serious historian has ever made such outrageous claims about Serra or the mission system, the network of 21 communities that Franciscans established along the California coast to evangelize native people. The lawmakers behind the bill drew their ideas from a single tendentious book written by journalist Elias Castillo.
As leaders of the state’s two largest Catholic communities, we serve thousands of native Californians who trace their faith to ancestors who helped build the missions. We understand the bitter history of native exploitation. But history can be complicated and facts matter.
In the definitive history, “Junípero Serra: California, Indians, and the Transformation of a Missionary,” Santa Clara University scholars Robert Senkewicz and Rose Marie Beebe point out deep cultural misunderstandings that resulted in cruelties for some natives living in the missions, but nothing resembling what the legislature claims.
Serra was a complex character, but he defended indigenous people’s humanity, decried the abuse of indigenous women, and argued against imposing the death penalty on natives who had burned down a mission and murdered one of his friends. At age 60, ill and with a chronically sore leg, Serra traveled 2,000 miles to Mexico City to demand that authorities adopt a native bill of rights he had written. As Pope Francis said when he canonized him in 2015, Serra is not only the country’s first Hispanic saint, but should be considered “one of the founding fathers of the United States.”
Mr. Newsom knows California history well enough to see that the claims against Serra aren’t true. In 2019 he apologized for the state’s history of injustice against native people, acknowledging that it was California’s first governor, Peter Burnett, who launched what Burnett called “a war of extermination.”
That was in 1851. Serra died in 1784. The destruction of the state’s native people happened long after he was gone and many of the missions had been taken over by the government.
How we choose to remember the past shapes the people we hope to be in the future. We can think of no better symbol for this multiethnic state committed to human dignity and equality than to place two statues at the California Capitol—one celebrating the living heritage of California’s indigenous peoples, another reflecting the faith and leadership of their defender St. Junípero Serra.
Full story at the Wall Street Journal.
Archbishop Cordileone is becoming more vocal and activist against those who work to harm the Church. Pray for his strength and perseverance as he is becoming a bigger threat to enemies of faith and justice. They will fight back, he must keep up the pressure.
Instead of counter signaling secular politicians, Archbishop Gomez should use his power and start by getting the REC in control. Both prelates need to control the Jesuit order. Santa Clara University voluntarily removed the statue of St. Serra. Op-Eds seem petty in light of this. Kick and scream when the Democrats do it, Jesuits can remove statues of saints with impunity.
Shouldn’t he fix the REC and speak out about those who want to distort history and unjustly malign a Saint?
It’s not an either or situation.
Maybe those of you in the archdiocese of LA should thank him for speaking out.
And, ask him to fix the REC.
The REC is Gomez’s baby, Cordileone has nothing to do with it.
Peter Burnett, California’s first civilian governor, never declared “a war of extermination.” Gomez has spread that lie before. Tonto Cordileone shrugs his shoulders.
Hymie, whether or not Burnett “launched” or “declared” a war of extermination, on Jan. 6, 1851, he stated, “That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct must be expected. While we cannot anticipate this result but with painful regret, the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power or wisdom of man to avert.” His full state of the state address, including his racial views, is linked here:
https://governors.library.ca.gov/addresses/s_01-Burnett2.html
Why are you so quick to accuse Archbishop Gomez of spreading lies and to seemingly excuse Burnett?
Burnett, an Independent Democrat, was a complicated man, an abolitionist who wrote what he did about Native Americans and a Protestant who became a Catholic at a time in history with significant anti-Catholic sentiment.
Because him speakum heaps forked tongue many moons. Gomez cited your link in a previous article, only he didn’t read it. The relevant paragraphs are 8-21.
The Indians referenced were not Mission Indians or settled, assimilated Indians. They were brutal savages who terrorized the long frontier, i.e., rape, kill, pillage, burn. Burnett’s was an articulate, insightful, and humane assessment of the state of affairs.
There was “no bitter history of native exploitation” nor “destruction of the state’s native people” by Spain, Mexico, or the Americans.
Gomez, Cordileone, Newsom and the fake Indians can all go back to their Fauxcahontas movies.
Re-read it. Burnett describes “races” and a “war of extermination.” He doesn’t make the distinction you make. He was clearly a segregationist (and more). “The two races are kept asunder by so many causes, and having no ties of marriage or consanguinity to unite them, they must ever remain at enmity.” “… a hatred against the white man that never ceases to exist in the Indian bosom.” And, other examples could be cited as well. These are not the positions of a Christian, Catholic or Protestant.
History is often complex (and persons should be seen in their historical context). But, there’s no need for you to calumniate the archbishops. (Newsom is another story entirely.).
Clearly the context is of tribal brigands attacking innocents in the hinterlands. Mission Indians were marrying soldiers, sailors, etc. since the time of Serra with his encouragement. You’re caught up in the same racial mania as Gomez, Cordileone, and the times. Enjoy the movie.
PS: Gomez and sidekick cannot even do an effective job of defending St Junipero.