J. Serra statue is vandalized

Graffiti and damage at Carmel Mission are being investigated as a hate crime.

Days after Pope Francis elevated Father Junipero Serra to sainthood, vandals struck the Carmel Mission where the remains of the controversial missionary are buried, toppling statues and damaging gravesites.

The vandals, who police say acted Saturday night or early Sunday morning, splashed paint throughout the cemetery and across the doors of a basilica, scrawling “Saint of Genocide” on one headstone. The statue of Serra was toppled and smeared with green paint.

Carmel Police Sgt. Luke Powell said his agency was investigating the incident as a hate crime because the vandals targeted “specifically the headstones of people of European descent, and not Native American descent.”

Serra, the 18th century friar who brought Roman Catholicism to California, has been criticized by many for his harsh treatment of Native Americans. Despite protests, Pope Francis canonized Serra on Wednesday in a ceremony in Washington, saying the friar “sought to defend the dignity of the native community,” and suggesting that his legacy had been misinterpreted.

The Carmel Mission had planned an event Sunday celebrating Serra’s sainthood.

Instead, staff and volunteers spent the morning picking up statues that had been knocked over and scrubbing graffiti from tombstones.

Powell said investigators were reviewing surveillance video to try to identify a suspect or suspects.

Several security guards were stationed overnight at the mission, he said, but the vandalism went undetected until 7 a.m. Sunday.

The Carmel Mission has seen an uptick in visitors in recent months in advance of Serra’s canonization and as controversy about the decision to make him a saint has grown.

Serra arrived in what would become California in 1769 and established nine missions between San Diego and San Francisco.

The Spanish missionary viewed the indigenous tribes as heathens who desperately needed the Gospel, and baptized thousands of Native Americans.

California public school students, typically in fourth grade, have for decades built models of missions and studied the history of Catholicism’s spread throughout the state.

In recent years, a more critical accounting of that history has gained attention.

The Spanish brought diseases that devastated the indigenous population and were known for flogging those who disobeyed and capturing those who tried to leave the missions.

Serra’s role in such violence is disputed; the matter has been debated on university campuses and the halls of the state Legislature.

Pope Francis led the canonization ceremony during his recent visit to the United States, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.

The Pope addressed Serra’s history by portraying him as a protector, not an oppressor, of early Californians.