Controversial Priest Junipero Serra Cannonized

Father Junipero Serra, the 18th-century Spanish Franciscan priest who is both revered and reviled for founding nine missions in California, including those in San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel and San Diego, was canonized Wednesday by Pope Francis during a Mass in Washington, D.C.

Marking the occasion, ceremonial bell-ringings were held at Mission San Juan Capistrano at 9 a.m. and noon, and visitors were invited to watch the canonization Mass in the Great Stone Church Ruins.

Hundreds more people gathered at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles to watch the Mass, which was celebrated by the pontiff at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., where the pope arrived Tuesday to begin a U.S. visit. The Mass was celebrated in Spanish.

“It is fitting that history’s first Hispanic pope will give the USA its first Hispanic saint,” Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archbishop Jose Gomez wrote on his Twitter page Tuesday in anticipation of the Mass, which he attended. With Serra, he wrote, the pope “is giving Americans a saint who reflects his own spiritual priorities.”

The announcement earlier this year that Serra would be canonized was hailed by many Catholics, but it was also met with derision by critics. Before Serra’s arrival, hundreds of thousands of indigenous people lived in what is today California. But the mission system imposed pressure on Indians to assimilate while also exposing thousands to foreign diseases, wiping out villages, native animals and plants.

Critics have accused Serra of carrying out acts that were essentially genocidal.

Serra was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1988, beginning his path toward sainthood.

Pope Francis hailed Serra as “the evangelizer of the West in the United States” for his founding of the first nine of California’s 21 missions. With the canonization Mass, Serra became the first saint canonized in the United States, and Gomez called it the high point of the pope’s visit.

The pope was so committed to canonizing Serra that he agreed to bypass the traditional requirement of a second miracle being attributed to him. He was already credited with healing a nun of lupus as his first miracle.

“Today we remember one of those witnesses who testified to the joy of the gospel in these lands, Father Junipero Serra,” the pontiff said during the Mass. “He was the embodiment of a church which goes forth, a church which sets out to bring everywhere the reconciling tenderness of God. Junipero Serra left his native land and its way of life.

“He was excited about blazing trails, going forth to meet many people, learning and valuing their particular customs and ways of life,” he said. “He learned how to bring to birth and nurture God’s life in the faces of everyone he met. Junipero sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who mistreated and abused -- mistreatment and wrongs which today still trouble us, especially because of the hurt which they caused in the lives of many people.”

--City News Service. A statue of Father Junipero Serra at Golden Gate Park, photo via Wiki Commons