Pope goes ahead with canonisation
Pope Francis took one of the most controversial steps of his United States visit when he canonised an 18th-century missionary known by admirers as the ‘‘Apostle of California’’ but accused by Native Americans of helping to eradicate their culture.
The man now known as Saint Junipero Serra arrived in what is now San Diego in 1769 and went on to found nine of the 21 missions that grew into modern-day California, where many streets and buildings bear his name.
A crowd of about 25,000 people, including some opponents of the canonisation, flocked around the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC, where Francis said an outdoor mass and declared Serra a saint. The ceremony also was the first canonisation on US soil.
Detractors contend that Serra essentially imprisoned Native Americans in closed communities, where he suppressed their cultures and had them beaten as he tried to indoctrinate them in Catholic ways. Supporters acknowledge corporal punishment was used, but contend that this was common practice at the time.
Francis, who was born in Argentina, said during a recent visit to Latin America that ‘‘many grave sins’’ had been committed against Native American people in God’s name.
Corrina Gould, co-founder of Indian People Organising for Change and a member of California’s Chochenyo Ohlone tribe, said she had little sympathy for the argument that Serra’s behaviour was explained by his times.
‘‘He did the bidding of the Catholic Church and the Spanish crown and his own ego,’’ she said.