In light of the soon-to-begin pilgrimage route from the West, named the Serra Route, that will end in Indianapolis at the National Eucharistic Convention, we re-post this important article on Fr. Serra penned by the Archbishop of San Francisco, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone: To the protesters who tore down his statue in Los Angeles [in July 2020], the priest, friar and saint Junípero Serra represents “hate, bigotry and colonization,” as one activist put it. Nothing would have made Serra sadder, for the real man was a profound lover of all people and especially of the indigenous peoples he came to serve. Seen through the lens of the present, many heroes of history may seem unworthy of their pedestals. But some, such as Serra, still deserve our esteem.Who, then, is Junípero Serra after all? First and foremost, Serra represents the true spirit of a church identified with the poor and outcast. He left his home, his family, his sinecure as a philosophy professor to offer the very best thing he had to the California people: the news that God Himself loved them enough to send His only Son to die on a cross to redeem them. Saint Junípero Serra is “the Apostle of California.” Serra repeatedly intervened for mercy on behalf of indigenous rebels against Spanish authorities. He famously walked to Mexico City with a painful ulcerated leg to obtain the authority to discipline the military who were abusing the indigenous people. Then he walked back. And his legacy lives on. The 21 missions founded by Serra and his brother Franciscans are the state’s oldest structures and...
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