July 26, 2026 - "Saint Junipero Serra"

A year before he beatified Fray Junipero Serra, St. John Paul II made a pilgrimage to the grave of the Franciscan priest at Mission San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel, California.  At that time St. John Paul made this observation about Fray Junipero:

 

“At crucial times in human affairs, God raises us men and women whom he thrusts into roles of decisive importance for the future development of both society and the Church.  We rejoice all the more when their achievement is coupled with a holiness of life that can truly be called heroic.  So it is with Junipero Serra, who in the providence of God was destined to be the Apostle of California.”

 

The canonization of Junipero Serra has led to some controversy over how Serra treated Native Americans.

 

Ruben Mendoza, a professor of archeology at California State University, Monterey, California, described himself as being of Mexican-Indian descent.  He notes that Junipero Serra was devoted to the Native Americans and to sharing the Gospel with them.  Professor Mendoza continues: “The irony is that, over these many years, those same communities tend to criticize him for what he did:  evangelize them and bring them a different way of looking at the world.”  

 

The professor has been involved in research and conservation projects at several California missions founded by Serra.  He said that many of Serra’s critics are confusing the impact of Spanish colonizing and missionary activity on the native communities with what happened after California became a U. S. territory in 1848.  Professor Mendoza notes that a decimation of the Native American population occurred in the period after 1850, but Serra had no connection to that phenomenon.  Those who criticize Serra the most tend to conflate the American period with that of the missionaries.  

 

About thirty years ago, the late Fr. Finbar Kinneally, OFM, who spent many years researching the life of Fray Junipero Serra and his fellow missionaries as part of his work at the Academy of American Franciscan History, made the same observation to me about the decimation of the Native American population occurring after California became a U. S. territory—and certainly not during the lifetime of Junipero Serra.  This occurred when he took me on a tour of old Mission Santa Barbara.

 

A second major objection to Serra’s canonization was the report that Native American adults at his mission were beaten.  Professor Mendoza notes that there is no documentation that Serra himself abused any Native Americans.  The system under which he operated did use corporal punishment, but that was used for transgressors from all walks of life, including soldiers.

 

Professor Mendoza says that he supports the canonization and says that he believes it “has much to offer the peoples of Latin America, especially those of us of Mexican-Indian heritage who currently live under a shadow of doubt and denigration.”

 

Pope Francis has indicated his interest in canonizing Junipero Serra because Serra was great evangelist and truly the Apostle of California.  May we take as our own his motto:  “Always forward, never back.”

 

Until next week, Fr. John