Sainthood for California Missionary, Foe of Native Americans
The Franciscan friar who brought Christianity to California in the 18th century was canonized by Pope Francis on Wednesday, to the anger of Native Americans who see his legacy as murderous.
Junipero Serra founded the first nine of what would become 21 Spanish missions stretching from San Diego to San Francisco, giving the Roman Catholic Church a firm foothold in what was then called New Spain.
Beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1988, he was elevated to sainthood at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, on the second day of Francis's historic visit to the United States.
Among many Native Americans, Serra is a controversial figure whom they blame for the suppression of their centuries-old culture and the brutal death of countless thousands of their ancestors.
"We strongly oppose naming the murderer of our people and culture a saint," Toypurina Carac, spokesman for the Kizh Gabrieleno nation in greater Los Angeles, told AFP when the plans were first announced.
"We are very surprised that a modern, progressive pope like Francis would follow through on this, without doing his homework on the history of Serra and his true legacy," he told AFP.
- 'Very serious crimes' -
Serra died in 1784 at the age of 70 in Carmel, the headquarters of his Alta California missions, where he remains interred under the chapel floor.
A Jesuit who is spiritually close to Saint Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order to which Serra belonged, the pope announced in January his intention to canonize Serra as "the great evangelizer" of the U.S. west coast.
An online petition asking Francis to change his mind drew more than 10,600 signatures.
Pope John Paul II extended a historic apology to Native Americans in 1992 for the harm inflicted upon them by the Catholic Church, and Francis himself has made strong gestures of reconciliation.
While in Bolivia in July the Argentine pope asked forgiveness for the "many, very serious crimes committed against the native peoples of America in the name of God."
During Wednesday's canonization mass the pope acknowledged once more the damage done to indigenous Americans.
But he presented Serra as a figure who shielded them from harm.
"Junipero sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it," the pope said.
- 'A short temper' -
Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez has hailed the canonization as a "gift to California and the Americas."
Serra's name appears widely in California, on street signs and schools, and even on a mountain -- the 5,857 foot (1,785 meter) Junipero Serra Peak in Monterey County.
University of California at Riverside history professor Steven Hackel, author of "Junipero Serra: California's Founding Father," described the monk as "a very controversial figure even in his own day."
"Many loved him and many found him impossible," Hackel told AFP.
"He could have a short temper. He was very strong willed. When he believed something was right, he believed it was God's plan."
Born on the Spanish island of Majorca, Serra, a noted theologian, traveled first to Mexico before he founded, in San Diego in 1769, the first of his network of missions to convert the Indians.
"They were asked to speak a different language," Hackel said. "They were frequently told who they could marry. They were told to dress in a certain manner and to stay there (in the mission) and work."
They also died in large numbers, their immune systems unable to cope with illnesses that the Europeans brought with them.
According to Hackel, one Indian baby in three did not live longer than a year, and two in five died between the ages of two and four.
Elias Castillo, author of "A Cross of Thorns: the Enslavement of California's Indians by the Spanish Missions," said the Catholic outposts were veritable "death camps."
They were places, he said, where 62,000 Indians perished as a result of brutality, illness or malnutrition, out of a total indigenous population of 300,000.
"Serra took upon himself that he would simply enslave the Indians," Castillo told AFP. "He had no order to do that."
Taking an opposing view, Gregory Orfalean, author of another biography about Serra, said the missionary "often risked his own life for the Indians."
"He often fought with his Spanish overlords in the government and military and advocated strongly on behalf of the California Indian," he said.
The dramatic 80 percent drop in California's indigenous population came later, he said, at the time of the mid-19th century gold rush, more often at the hands of white settlers than a result of disease.
Source: Agence France Presse
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