St Junipero Serra Internet star Bishop Robert Barron this week delivered a homily in support of St Junipero Serra, an 18th-Century Franciscan missionary whose legacy has drawn renewed scrutiny in recent months from some who consider him a symbol of an oppressive colonial system.
“We are gathered here today in defence of the statue,” Bishop Barron said in a homily at Mission Santa Inés.
“The Church understands the very legitimate concerns of some of the protestors. Yes, we are concerned about racism, oppression, righting social wrongs,” the bishop said, as well as amplifying voices that might otherwise go unheard.
“What I don’t understand is besmirching the reputation and memory of this great saint, represented by this statue,” he added, to applause from the congregation, which included Franciscan friars, members of the religious order to which Serra belonged.
“People are laying at the feet of Junipero Serra everything that bugs them about 18th-Century Spanish colonialism. And let’s be honest— there was plenty wrong with 18th-Century Spanish colonialism,” Dr Barron said.
“But I refuse to accept the characterisation of evangelisation as a kind of cultural aggression.”
Barron’s homily, which he delivered while celebrating Mass outdoors at the mission, came against a backdrop of opposing groups of protestors.
A group of 20 or so people turned out to express opposition to Serra, and to call for the removal of the saint’s statue from the mission grounds. Catholic counter-protestors, including Knights of Columbus members, also were present that day to defend Serra, block protestors from disrupting the Mass, and to pray the rosary.
During the 18th Century, Fr Serra, a Spaniard, founded nine Catholic missions, from San Diego to San Francisco, in the area that would later become California. Serra helped to convert thousands of native Californians to Christianity and taught them new agricultural technologies.
Santa Inés mission is located in Solvang, California, about an hour northwest of Santa Barbara. Although that mission was not founded by Serra himself, it owes its existence to Serra’s legacy.
Abuses
While some activists today associate Serra with the many abuses that the Native Americans suffered after contact with Europeans, biographies and historical records suggest that Serra actually advocated on behalf of the Natives against the Spanish military and against encroaching European settlement.
Widespread comparisons by some activists of Serra to Adolph Hitler, or assertions that Serra himself was ‘genocidal’, are simply false, he said.
Dr Barron pointed out that Serra himself viewed the sharing of his Catholic Faith as the sharing of “a precious gift” – a gift that he dedicated his life, selflessly, to giving to others.