Denver Newsroom, Oct 13, 2020 / 03:54 pm (CNA).- A group of activists near San Francisco on Monday defaced a statue of St. Junipero Serra on private property with red spray paint before tearing it from its foundation.
Serra, an 18th-century Franciscan priest and missionary, is viewed by some activists as a symbol of colonialism and of the abuses that many Native Americans suffered after contact with Europeans. However, historians say the missionary protested abuses and sought to fight colonial oppression.
San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone on Tuesday decried the “mob rule” that led to the statue of the saint being “mindlessly defaced and toppled by a small, violent mob.”
“This kind of behavior has no place in any civilized society. While the police have thankfully arrested five of the perpetrators, what happens next is crucial, for if these are treated as small property crimes, it misses the point: the symbols of our faith are now under attack not only on public property, but now on our own property and even inside of our churches,” Cordileone said Oct. 13.
The riot that led to the statue’s destruction took place Oct. 12 at Mission San Rafael Arcángel in San Rafael, CA, north of San Francisco Bay.
Though Serra himself did not found Mission San Rafael, it owes its existence to Serra’s legacy, as he founded the first nine missions in what would become California.
The hourlong protest, organized by members of the Coast Miwok tribe, marked Indigenous People’s Day, the holiday that some cities and states – including California – have designated to replace Columbus Day.
A church maintenance worker had covered the statue in duct tape before the protest to protect it from graffiti, and boarded up windows at the mission. Numerous statues of the saint have been vandalized or destroyed this year, most of them in California.
The masked rioters peeled off the duct tape and sprayed red paint in the statue’s face.
“This is a continued reminder of the impact of colonization and genocide of our people,” Dean Hoaglin, chair of the Coast Miwok Tribal Council of Marin, told Fox2.
The protestors tried to prevent local news cameras from filming the toppling, but Fox2 captured the statue’s fall on video. At least five people can be seen pulling on the statue’s head with nylon cords and ropes.
The tape appears to show the statue falling on one of the protestors, though there have not been any injuries reported.
Police arrested five women in connection with the incident and charged them with felony vandalism, Fox2 reported.
“We cannot allow a small unelected group of lawbreakers to decide what sacred symbols we Catholics or other believers may display and use to foster our faith. This must stop,” Cordileone said.
“Attacking the symbols of faith of millions of Catholics, who are as diverse in ethnicity as any faith in America, is counterproductive. It’s also simply wrong.”
Mike Brown, spokesman for the San Francisco archdiocese, told local news media that the protestors had not asked the mission to take down the statue prior to Monday’s demonstration.
Catholics in San Francisco are planning a peaceful prayer demonstration at the statue site Tuesday evening, Brown told CNA.
Cordileone noted that the protest against the statue began peacefully, but soon descended into violence. He encouraged people to learn more about Serra.
“There is no question that the indigenous peoples of our continent suffered under Europeans who came here and their descendants, especially after the mission era ended and California entered into the United States. But Fr. Serra is the wrong symbol of those who wish to address or redress this grievance,” Cordileone contended.
“Fr. Serra and his fellow Franciscans renounced all worldly pursuits to give their lives to serving the native peoples and so protected them from the abuses of their fellow Spaniards.”
Experts have disputed claims that Serra was in any way involved in genocide, and in contrast, there is evidence that Serra advocated for the rights of the indigenous people in the face of mistreatment by the Spanish military.
A California archeologist, who has studied the missions for over 25 years, told CNA earlier this year that it is clear from Serra’s own writings that he was motivated by a missionary zeal to bring salvation to the native people through the Catholic faith, rather than by genocidal, racist, or opportunistic motivations.
“Serra writes excitedly about how he had finally found his life’s calling, and that he would give his life to these people and their salvation,” Dr. Ruben Mendoza, an archeologist and professor at California State University-Monterey Bay, told CNA.
Born on the island of Petra Mallorca in Spain in 1713, Serra joined the Franciscans and quickly gained prominence as both a scholar and professor.
He chose to give up his academic career to become a missionary in the territory of New Spain, in which Spanish colonizers had already been active for over two centuries.
Traveling almost everywhere on foot and practicing various forms of self-mortification, Serra founded mission churches all along the coast— the first nine of the 21 missions in what is today California.
Many of the missions would form the cores of what are today the state’s biggest cities— such as San Diego, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
In many ways, the missions were a communal venture between the friars and Native leaders, Mendoza said. Soldiers were typically housed in a garrison just off-site from the compound. The compound itself would include work areas, such as a blacksmith’s shop and places for crafts and weaving.
The Europeans taught the Natives new agricultural techniques, as well as instruction in the faith, performing thousands of baptisms.
“Unlike many of us today, Serra was a man on a mission,” Mendoza said.
“He was absolutely determined to engage the salvation of indigenous communities. And while for some that may be seen as an intrusion, for Serra in his time, that was seen as one of the most benevolent things one could do— to give one’s life over to others, and that’s what he did.”
Serra specifically advocated for the rights of Native peoples, at one point drafting a 33-point “bill of rights” for the Native Americans living in the mission settlements and walking all the way from California to Mexico City to present it to the viceroy.
Mendoza said the worst abuses against the Native Americans in California took place after the age of the missions ended, when the Spanish government ceased sending funding to the 21 sites and to the Spanish military.
The soldiers, without the support of their faraway benefactors, began to prey on the missionaries and the Natives. Many more Natives died during this time than had in the 60 years that the missions were operational.
Mendoza said there was a time during the transition to the American era when indigenous people were more vulnerable to attacks by settlers and white authorities if they were not Christian. The fact that the missions had converted many Native communities to Christianity actually helped them survive later European abuses, he said.
By the 1820s— nearly four decades after Serra’s death— friars at the now mostly destitute missions were writing letters of grievance to the American and Mexican governments, advocating for better treatment for the Natives, Mendoza said.
The California gold rush in the 1840s saw hundreds of thousands of European settlers come to the area, with little to no protections afforded to the Natives.
While many Native peoples did suffer horrific abuse, Mendoza said many people conflate the abuses the Natives suffered long after Serra’s death with the period when Serra was alive and building the missions.
Pope Francis canonized Serra in 2015 during a visit to the United States.
“Junípero sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it,” the pope said in his homily at the Mass of canonization.
Statues of the saint have this year become focal points for protests and demonstrations across California, with images of the saint being torn down or vandalized in protest of California’s colonial past.
A statue of the saint was torn down in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, on June 19 by a crowd of about 100 people, and on the same day a statue of the saint was torn down in Los Angeles.
Rioters pulled down and defaced a statue of Serra in Sacramento on July 4, inspiring a local Catholic to set up a makeshift shrine to Serra on the statue’s empty plinth July 5, and lead other Catholics in cleaning graffiti from the site.
Some California institutions, such as the University of San Diego, have put their statues of Serra in storage to protect them.
The San Rafael arson is the latest in a spate of attacks against Catholic churches across the country.
On July 11, an arson attack gutted the 249-year-old Mission San Gabriel in Los Angeles, a mission church founded by St. Serra.
That same morning, a man crashed a minivan through the front door of Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Ocala, Florida. He then set the church aflame while parishioners inside prepared for morning Mass.
Police arrested Stephen Anthony Shields, 24, of Dunnellon, Florida later that day. He has been charged with attempted murder, arson, burglary, and evading arrest.
Also in July, an as-yet unidentified assailant beheaded a statue of Christ the Good Shepherd at a parish in the Archdiocese of Miami, in Southwest Miami-Dade County.
In 2019, the co-cathedral of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee was damaged by fire, with several of the chairs in the sanctuary set ablaze using an accelerant. A 32-year-old man with a history of mental illness was later arrested in connection with the arson.
On July 10, the Diocese of Brooklyn announced that New York City police were investigating the vandalization of a statue of the Virgin Mary at Cathedral Prep School and Seminary in Queens. The next day, local police in Boston confirmed that a statue of the Blessed Virgin, located outside the church of St. Peter’s Parish, had been set on fire and suffered damage.
In September, a man broke at least six windows, beat several metal doors, and broke numerous statues around grounds of a Louisiana parish in a late-night vandalism attack that lasted over two hours. The assailant has since been arrested and confessed to the crime.
Also in September, a vandal entered the sanctuary of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in El Paso, Texas and destroyed a nearly 90-year-old statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Eighty-three percent of Catholic likely voters are concerned about attacks on churches in recent months, according to a poll conducted Aug. 27 – Sept. 1 by RealClear Opinion Research in partnership with EWTN News.
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I thought a Catholic who is in mortal sin, if he was informed of the teaching of the Church. I also thought that according to canon law is is not longer in the Church. Is this the case?
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was excommunicated latae sententiae decades ago. Unfortunately no Bishop responsible for his soul has ever had the nerve to codify that fact by issuing a ferendae sententiae excommunication.
His life long mockery of the faith will be addressed, finally, during his particular judgment.
Bishop Paprocki had the moral courage [something that should be done without hesitation although a rarity these days among clerics deserving reference as moral courage] to deny pro-abortion congressman Dick Durbin the Eucharist. And I believe he, along with Archbishop Cordileone would likely deny faux Catholic president Biden.
Biden has gone beyond reasoned propriety to expand abortion to extremes, as well as the imposition of disordered sexual behavior on society, religious institutions including the moral rape of children, in cases providing jurisdiction to remove children from parents to have them indoctrinated and sexually mutilated. What’s equally scandalous is that His Holiness doesn’t emit a peep in disapproval. Should there be wonder why we’re witnessing an apostasy? Our bishops and cardinals are left with the obligation to lead the Church out of this cauldron of evil.
It’s time to notice the extent of the gangrene…
Yes, Bishop Paprocki refers to the Fifth Commandment; yes, Cardinal Gregory identifies Biden as yet another “cafeteria Catholic,” and yes, His Holiness “doesn’t emit a peep.” We might note that the scriptural account of creation not only refers to binary man and woman, but firstly the binary relationship between good and evil.
OUR affliction today is the fluid denial of both binaries. Each denial contained within the other…
BIDEN symbolically signs himself at a pro-abortion rally precisely because the incoherent zeitgeist is already rooted in the (im)purely physical spectrum of gender theory. The discounted “sins below the belt” and Biden’s advocacy of total abortion and the pro-LGBTQ religion are two sides of the same coin.
AND as for the so-called “infinite” value (rather than immense) of the human person, what then of the distinction between the infinite God and finite Man? In Dignitas Infinita why might we detect the language of historical “consciousness” subliminally eclipsing the language of personal consciences? Is the gangrene in the “field hospital” Church so advanced that the patients no longer even comprehend to Judeo-Christian cosmos?
TODAY, our prayers are with “Eucharistic Renewal,” and yet we recall that Archbishop Cardileone’s original proposal was for Eucharistic Coherence—as between faith and actions. A “coherence” now obliterated under the crypto-Aztec Biden’s anti-Catholic/Natural Law agenda. Instead, the spectrum of anti-thought and maybe the ideology of harmonized polarities (the crypto-blessing under Fiducia Supplicans)—but no longer the violation of this or that Commandment, nor the quaint selectivity of merely “cafeteria” Catholics…
The Contradiction of the Cross is replaced by Biden’s fluid “sign of the crossing” of the Rubicon…into Nietzsche’s post-Christian “transvaluation of values.” And, into the rejection of binary human sexuality as now coupled (!) with the rejection of binary GOOD and EVIL.
Fr. Peter, I have long admired your commentary on this website, and I agree with what you say here.
But there is one thing that I would like to call to your attention, since I’m sure that your statement was inadvertent.
You said that Biiden wants to “expand abortion to extremes.”
I want to remind you that there is no abortion that is not extreme. Killing one single baby — at any stage of development — is hideous, unthinkable, extreme in the utmost sense.
Not splitting hairs here, but exactly what is a “ faux Catholic”? No, perhaps he is a real Catholic in deep trouble. To my knowledge he has yet to be publicly excommunicated nor to be publicly declared self excommunicated. Exactly WHY I don’t understand at all, but -if I not mistaken- I believe that is up to the higher clergy, not the lay, to determine. He is a brother who needs much prayer.
James, if and when you’re ordained a priest then you can make that determination in the confessional.
James, I guess I gave a glib response and I apologize. What responsibility I have as a priest references what’s manifest in a person’s behavior. Insofar as judgments, and some are necessary in the external forum there are indicators that guide us to make a moral assessment. With Biden we have direct and blatant statements of ‘disagreement’ with obligatory Catholic doctrine. Furthermore, he has an obvious obsession to dismiss moral justice in favor of a party agenda, that apparently is consistent with his own, perhaps his own even more extreme.
While there was and still is the issue of papal interference with Catholic candidates to the presidency on the Constitutional principle of no [one] religion is to have sway within a government [based on the Church of England prominence in government affairs], the principle of separation of Church and State the Constitution doesn’t prohibit any given religion to freely express its differences or priorities. Nonetheless it has been consistently misinterpreted especially by Democrats that Catholics will be controlled by the Vatican on moral issues particularly abortion, same sex relations.
The enigma now is that we have a presumably Catholic president, evidently sanctioned by his Holiness [visits to the Vatican] who obsessively promotes both abortion and homosexuality to the extent of indoctrination and its legal protection. His Holiness remains silent. As do most bishops except an honest few. As if speaking directly and openly regarding the moral injustices of this president were an abrogation of the Constitution. That is a disordered opinion. Disordered due to reversal in the order of legal right [for a religion to express its differences] and moral right [for a Roman pontiff to chastise a politician be he representative or president]. That, on the most grave issues regarding life or death, salvation or damnation. American bishops seem to be silent regarding Biden because of this misconstrued sense of Church interference in the affairs of State. That line of illegality or moral impropriety does not exist regarding Biden. He should and must be excommunicated. For sake of the truth of our faith and our loyalty to the Constitution.
Articulate and measured statement from a straight-talking bishop.
May his tribe increase.
And now it’s time for all the other bishops in the USA to grow a spine and publicly support what Bishop Paprocki has said about excommunicated Catholic Biden. (Just don’t hold your breath waiting.)
It’s an indictment of the horrific state of Catholic faith formation that a Bishop has to state what should be very obvious to any Catholic. The Bishop, rightfully, is fulfilling his teaching mission but, if our priests would give homilies that align with our faith and not namby pamby, “be good” homilies, maybe things will change for the better, namely, not of the world – Satan.
The Saginaw bishop recently said he was just stupid.
It seems that more and more Priests – just plain Priests at first and now Bishops and Cardinals – are FINALLY finding the nerve to speak up about what has been incredibly obvious for a few decades to those of us in the pews who put what we can into the collection plate each and every week. It seems to be Joe Biden, our devout ‘catholic’ president who has unwittingly become responsible for this, and so the democrats’ irony-deficiency continues unabated.
When will they ever learn?
Conservative bishops are very good at making careful statements. While it is true that Bishop Paprocki has taken some a couple of limited actions, like telling Durbin he can’t receive Communion, they are not close to being enough. Granted, the bishop of Springfield, Illinois can only do so much. Perhaps, though, at the very least he can call out the Cardinal Archbishop of DC for enabling and protecting Biden instead of giving the impression that he and Gregory are of a single mind. At this stage in the Francis era, I don’t expect much from hierarchs who have more of less gone along with the entire program. However, if they are going to make declarations that only elicit yawns or laughs from our enemies, they probably should not say anything at all.
This makes me think of Dante’s Inferno. I wonder what level of hell people like Biden will occupy 🤔. God is not mocked.
As for biden, he is a heretic-end of subject. As for the popes below the belt stupidity, I suggest he read about what Mary stated per sins of the flesh.
Biden has a long record of publicly supporting serious sins while simultaneously claiming to be Catholic. At present, though, he clearly does not always know where he is, who he is with, or what is going on. It’s impossible to say what his intentions were when he made the Sign of the Cross, just as it is impossible to know what his intentions were when he said, “God save the queen!”
Why are you making excuses? Biden’s intentions and character have been clearly and consistently revealed in his words and actions for several years at this point.
Who’s making excuses? He was a bad man before he was senile. Now that he is senile, though, it is largely pointless to pretend every action he takes is the result of a clear-headed decision, whether for good or for evil.
I’m more offended by his simulation of the sacrament of marriage when he was V.P. than by him making the Sign of the Cross.
The rich man died and went to Hell not because he had hurt the poor beggar Lazarus, but because he had lived as though Lazarus wasn’t there, as though the suffering of Lazarus wasn’t happening. (Luke 16:19-31)
Christ again makes clear that we will be damned for grave sins of omission when He declares that on judgement day, He will say to those on His left hand, “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire … for I was hungry and you gave me not to eat, thirsty and you gave me not to drink … ” and goes on to list basic human needs the lack of which He Himself had experienced in the suffering of the least of His brethren. (Matthew 25:31-46)
These hard sayings of Christ are the reason why St. Cyprian, in his treatise On Works and Alms exhorts the flock to do good works and to give alms, not by focusing on the dire plight of the needy, but instead focusing on the fact that their salvation is at stake.
Worldwide, over a billion innocent children of God, Christ in the least of His brethren, have been murdered through “legal” abortion. (No state has the authority to legalize the murder of innocent humanity. That fact was established at the Nuremberg Trials, where prosecutors treated “legal” abortion as a crime against humanity.)
Countess temporarily confused children have had their genitalia surgically or chemically mutilated, “legally.” The sex trafficking of children has become a multi-billion dollar a year business in the United States.
Have we been living as though these things weren’t happening to the innocent children of God? Christ Himself is experiencing these things in the least of His precious brethren.
Even though massive civil disobedience is arguably justified by the current situation, many Catholics will rationalize voting for candidates who are advocates of these atrocities or who are unwilling to alter public policy in order to end them.
It is the duty of the Catholic clergy to exhort the flock regarding their obligation to use the political freedom they still possess to end these atrocities for the sake of Christ unjustly suffering again in these little ones; after all, the salvation of the flock is at stake. The clergy will begin that exhortation or one day hear God almighty incarnate say to them “Depart from me, you cursed …”
Read the White House official proclamation on March 30 2024 of March 31 2024 as Transgender Day of Visibility:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/03/30/a-proclamation-on-transgender-day-of-visibility/
MARCH 30, 2023
A Proclamation on Transgender Day of Visibility