Sign the Petition Opposing Serra Canonization
Thousands already have signed a petition urging Pope Francis not to canonize Junipero Serra. We have until his Sept. 22 visit to the United States to send our message to the Pope.
Speak Your Mind
6 Comments
Trackbacks and Pingbacks
Your Holiness, Pope Francis,
The words in your encyclical letter resonate around the world. Please do not extinguish their extraordinary power and moral quality by canonizing Junipero Serra. He was a founder and supervisor of deadly concentration camps, ironically called Missions. And he brought about the cultural genocide of too many of those who he allowed to survive.
I urge you to read and answer the eloquent letter of July 1, 2015, from the Amah Mutsun nation. They describe in historic detail Junipero Serra’s role in the extermination of most of their ancestors, as well as the plunder and destruction of the ecology of the California coast regions caused by his colonialism.
I implore you not to undo the power of your words in the Laudato si’ and the poetry of Saint Francis that you quote and whose name you took. Saint Francis is remembered in California history and in place and city names. He also must not be associated with Junipero Serra’s genocide.
Maria Gilardin
I am opposed to making Junipero Serra a saint because the American Indians were so badly abused by the
Catholic church. The Indians were not respected by the Catholic church. They did not respect the Indians
beliefs or culture.
Respected Pope Francis
Please reconsider the decision to grant sainthood to Juniper Serra. This will be consistent with your noble, fair personality. I ask you to please read the letter dated July 1, 2015, from the Amah Mutsun nation.
Thanks
The actions of this imperialistic missionary do not match that of a saint in any tradition. The Native Americans in the area hold in their bodies the trauma of his holocaust (their words) – since he put them in pens and attempted to make their families conform to his rules.
How much will your voice for ecological and anti-colonialist views in the new world suffer if you elevate this brutal man who should have never been made a priest in any tradition.
Rev. Will McGarvey
Executive Director
Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County
Walnut Creek, California
the very idea of the canonization of Junipero Serra is an abomination. It is like canonizing Hitler. Serra is responsible for unimaginable suffering and theft from Native peoples.
Dear Your Holiness, Pope Francis,
I am urging you not to canonize Junipero Serra. As a Catholic, former Jesuit volunteer, and Californian it deeply saddens me to think of canonizing someone who represents such a painful dark period in California’s history as well as the church’s. In your encyclical on climate change you say it is a sin to harm the environment and a sin to harm indigenous cultures. Well, this man did both. He wiped out the indigenous population here in California, destroyed their native habitat and enslaved them. The injustices suffered by the native people are unspeakable.
I urge you to act in the spirit of unity with all peoples and cultures and respect the wishes of the surviving members of the California coastal tribes. Please do not canonize Junipero Serra. To do so would be acting with such grave insensitivity and cruelty. It is time to listen to the indigenous voices if we want to save our species and our planet.
All blessings,
Mary Kathryn Orrange, M.A.