(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.
