A mixed reaction to Serra sainthood
What Latino throngs celebrate, some Indian groups decry
WASHINGTON — Amid old bones, chants and invocations in Spanish and a nearly forgotten American Indian tongue, Pope Francis canonized 18th century Spanish missionary Junípero Serra on Wednesday, opening a misty window into the conquest of the American West.
The Mass before some 30,000 worshipers on the steps of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception gave Hispanic Americans their first Roman Catholic saint and made the “Apostle of California” the first person to be declared a saint on American soil.
But no less than Francis’ pronouncements on climate change, immigration and social justice, Serra’s elevation to sainthood etched the popular Latin American pope into another modern-day polemic.
Even as the church holds up the Franciscan friar as a protector of native people and spreader of the faith from Mexico to California, Serra remains a contentious figure among American Indian groups who protested bitterly against his elevation to sainthood.
“It’s a day of mourning for us,” said Valentin Lopez, chairman of California’s Amah Mutsun tribal band, who presented a petition to Vatican officials in New York this week. “The church continues to not recognize the humanity of our ancestors and all indigenous people.”
Vatican officials, who have long sought to atone for the injustices of the church against native people, blended traditional Latin liturgy with Old Testament verses read in Chochenyo, a dialect of the Ohlone language spoken by the Bay Area tribes that Serra evangelized.
Serra’s physical remains — bones — were held in an ornamental reliquary presented to Francis by Andrew Galvan, an Ohlone Indian whose ancestors became Christians at Mission Dolores in San Francisco.
To Galvan, participation in the canonization ceremony represented healing and reconciliation.
“I see this as a wonderful opportunity for the Catholic Church to reach out to native people, me included,” said Galvan, a curator at Mission Dolores and one of Serra’s leading advocates. “The legacy of Junipero Serra’s canonization is that native people who have felt ostracized, excluded, left out from the story of the California missions, are invited in.”
Reading in Indian dialect
The strains swirling around Serra’s canonization surrounded the 78-year-old pontiff even as he celebrated the open-air Mass under a late-afternoon sun glinting off the blue and gold tiles of the basilica’s massive Romanesque dome.
Before the pope stood Vincent Medina, assistant curator at Mission Dolores, who read from a specially prepared translation of the prophet Isaiah in the Chochenyo dialect, a language he is helping to revive.
Medina has publicly opposed Serra’s canonization, but agreed to participate in the ceremony to honor his ancestors and lend visibility to his people.
Francis addressed the native concerns in his homily: “Junipero sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it, mistreatment and wrongs which today still trouble us, especially because of the hurt which they cause in the lives of many people.”
Serra’s canonization took place hours after President Obama greeted Francis at the White House, and on the eve of his historic address to Congress on Thursday.
But administration officials steered clear of Serra and other social controversies, even as Vice President Joe Biden, the first Catholic vice president, attended the Mass.
“The pope sets his own agenda, speaks his own mind, and has his own pastoral mission,” Obama adviser Ben Rhodes said in a press briefing on the papal visit. “We would not in any way want to create any expectation that the pope is going to be a voice in U.S. domestic political issues.”
Jeb Bush in attendance
Other political figures were on hand, including Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, a convert to Catholicism, the religion of his Mexicanborn wife, Columba.
The sanctification of a Hispanic priest by the first South American pope also brought throngs of Latin American Catholics to the basilica — the nation’s largest Catholic edifice.
Entire families lined the street outside the basilica, clogged with worshipers who didn’t have tickets. “He speaks our language. I am in heaven,” said Maureen Morales, a 33year-old Costa Rican immigrant from Virginia who stood outside the grounds with her mother and eight other family members.
But it was also an occasion for reflection and vigils for many American Indians across the U.S. who have protested and signed petitions opposing Serra, whom they see as a symbol of European colonialism.
Francis has gone to lengths to apologize for the Catholic Church’s treatment of indigenous people during colonialism. During a visit to South America in July, the pope acknowledged that “many grave sins were committed against the native peoples on America in the name of God.”
Serra’s critics contend he was a key player in the Spanish colonial system, which decimated the California’s native tribes and their way of life. “For me, Junípero Serra was the beginning of the end of who we were as a people,” said Corrina Gould, a San Francisco activist who claims Karkin and Chochenyo Ohlone ancestry. “I think the pope has made some great leaps and bounds. He’s been forward thinking about a lot of issues in the world, but he’s really off the mark with this one.”
Serra’s defenders sometimes portray him as a man of his era — subject to human imperfection, but certainly more benevolent toward indigenous people than others in the Spanish colonial system.
Defense of Serra
“As others considered them savages, he considered them as human beings who deserved to know about God’s goodness and love,” said the Rev. Kenneth Laverone, a Sacramento pastor who ritually recounted the missionary’s life story as part of the canonization Mass. “That was his motivation. Unfortunately, there’s always side effects that come with colonization.”
Serra was born and educated on the idyllic Spanish island of Mallorca. In granting him a halo without the usually required two miracles, Francis credited the priest with giving up what certainly would have been an easier life had he not sailed to Mexico in 1749.
Serra’s legacy is built mostly around the last 15 years of his life in California, where he founded nine missions between San Diego and San Francisco. Native critics say the Spanish missions were inherently coercive and brutal, akin to forced labor camps.
But those who venerate Serra say he cannot be blamed for the larger history. “There’s no denying that the missions for the California Indians were an unmitigated disaster,” Galvan said. “But I think what’s happening now is Junípero Serra is getting the credit or the blame for all the things, good, bad or indifferent, that happened at the California missions in his time.”