The Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad in Soledad, California, was part of the brutal system founded by Junipero Serra, who will be granted sainthood this year by the Catholic Church. Photo by Franz Liszt / Wikipedia
Al Villanueva, an elder from the Purepecha community in California, offers a different perspective on Junipero Serra, the founder of the Indian mission system who will be granted sainthood this by Pope Francis during a visit to the United States next week:
Ninety percent of the California Native population was wiped out between 1848 and 1865. My friend and California Native American spiritual leader, Tony Cerda, chief of the Carmel Mission Indian tribe of Costanoan Rumsen, on whom Father Junipero Serra’s designation of sainthood rests, was one of the lucky ones. His San Francisco Bay area indigenous ancestors survived the genocide by escaping to Southern California and settled in the Pomona Valley during the mid-19th century. But the massacres and genocide of native peoples were not committed by Franciscan missionary priest Junipero Serra nor any Puritan, Congregational or Christian missionary who spread the Gospel to native peoples in the New World. This is a simple and irrefutable fact. In fact, it was the devout Christian priests, ministers and evangelizers who protected native peoples from the historic genocide, as Chief Cerda and other Christian Native American spiritual leaders like myself have declared. But how do we contemplate, as First Nations peoples, the colonization and religious conversion with humility, with the knowledge that sin and error exist in all of us? And may we contemplate them with hope, the hope that comes from the knowledge that the process of change, redemption and healing are possible in every moment. With that knowledge of how we, our ancestors and the Catholic Church in the past as well as in the present are all bound together, our histories intertwined, we Native Americans humbly offer the idea that to honor Saint Junipero Serra is to recognize and acknowledge all that was destroyed as to honor all that was created. For one thing did not happen without the other.Get the Story:
Al Villanueva: A Native American’s perspective on Father Serra’s canonization (The Inland Daily Bulletin 9/5) Also Today:
California Native Americans protest canonization of father of missions, despite Pope's apology (AP 9/6)
Pope Francis’ Visit to U.S. Is His First Ever, for Several Reasons (The New York Times 9/6)
Related Stories
Steven Newcomb: The
religious basis of Doctrine of Discovery (09/02) Steven Newcomb: Pope in denial about genocide of our peoples (08/21)
Opinion: Church's apology not enough for some Native people (8/18)
Steven Newcomb: Church set out to dehumanize Indian people (08/12)
Steven Newcomb: Dehumanizing 'Indians' to take their lands (08/06)
Valentin Lopez: Founder of brutal Indian missions was no saint (08/04)
Peter d'Errico: Seeking action after apology from Pope Francis (07/30)
Steven Newcomb: Pope Francis takes a first step with apology (07/14)
Gyasi Ross: Pope Francis issues apology to indigenous peoples (07/13)
Elizabeth Hawksworth: Church owes apology to Native people (06/23)
Steven Newcomb: Colonizers of Indian land now viewed as saints (06/08)
School apologizes for teaching song about brutal Indian mission (05/21)
Opinion: Join 'Long March to Rome' to support indigenous rights (05/04)
California weighs replacement of statue of Indian mission figure (04/29)
Steven Newcomb: Church celebrates agent of Native genocide (4/28)
Peter d'Errico: Pope fails to address genocide of Native peoples (4/27)
Peter d'Errico: A mistake with sainthood for Indian mission figure (02/06)
Steven Newcomb: Pope celebrates church's legacy of genocide (2/4)
RNS: Critics question sainthood for the 'Columbus of California' (2/3)
Sainthood for founder of brutal California Indian mission system (01/22)
Steven Newcomb: Church set to sanctify legacy of domination (1/19)
Join the Conversation
