Friday, July 1, 2022

 (Optional) Memorial of Saint Junipero Serra, priest

(Amos 8:4-6.9-12; Matthew 9:9-13)

Today the Church salutes the Franciscan missionary St. Junipero Serra.  Founder of multiple Indian missions, St. Junipero was much admired for two and a half centuries.  California has considered him one of its founding fathers.  Recently, however, his memory has been reviled.  Except in the Church he has been “cancelled.”

Criticism of St. Junipero stems from the discipline that he imposed on the native Americans.  To assure the maintenance of the communities, the members were not free to come and go at will.  If they left stealthily, they were often corporally disciplined on return.  Corporal punishment is taboo today, partly because it has often been excessively administered.  But in prior times and fairly implemented, it was considered necessary.

The Church has undergone much criticism because of Catholic institution’s treatment of indigenous peoples.  In Canada today it is reeling from discoveries of mass graves of Native American school children.  The accusations must be investigated evenhandedly.  Certainly, any kind of sexual abuse must be condemned.  But the vast majority of its practices, it must be acknowledged, were not inherently evil.  The religious sisters and brothers usually did their best to educate the children.  They were facilitating their integration into a new society.  They too had a vision of descendants of native tribes and descendants of European stock could live in peace.

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