Father Junipero Serra, the 18th-century Spanish Franciscan priest who is both revered and reviled for founding nine missions in California, including those in San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel and San Diego, will be canonized today by Pope Francis during a Mass in Washington, D.C.
Ceremonial bell-ringings will take place at Mission San Juan Capistrano at 9 a.m. and noon to mark the occasion, and visitors will be invited to watch the canonization Mass in the Great Stone Church Ruins.
The Mass will be celebrated by the pontiff at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., where the pope arrived Tuesday to begin a U.S. visit. The Mass, set to begin at 1:15 p.m. California time, will be celebrated in Spanish.
“It is fitting that history’s first Hispanic pope will give the USA its first Hispanic saint,” Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archbishop Jose Gomez wrote on his Twitter page Tuesday in anticipation of the Mass. With Serra, he wrote, the pope “is giving Americans a saint who reflects his own spiritual priorities.”
The announcement earlier this year that Serra would be canonized was hailed by many Catholics, but it was also met with derision by critics. Before Serra’s arrival, hundreds of thousands of indigenous people lived in what is today California. But the mission system imposed pressure on Indians to assimilate while also exposing thousands to foreign diseases, wiping out villages, native animals and plants.
Critics have accused Serra of carrying out acts that were essentially genocidal.
Serra was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1988, beginning his path toward sainthood.
Pope Francis hailed Serra as “the evangelizer of the West in the United States” for his founding of the first nine of California’s 21 missions. With the canonization Mass, Serra will become the first saint canonized in the United States, and Gomez called it the high point of the pope’s visit.
The pope was so committed to canonizing Serra that he agreed to bypass the traditional requirement of a second miracle being attributed to him. He was already credited with healing a nun of lupus as his first miracle.
The Rev. Ken Laverone, a church canon lawyer and Franciscan in Sacramento, told CNN the pope sees Serra as “a prime example of evangelization in the western United States, in California, primarily.” He said judging Serra in a 21st Century context is unfair, but said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the pope makes “a formal apology and a plea of forgiveness from the native people.”
