San Francisco, Calif., Mar 7, 2018 / 10:41 am (ACI Prensa).- California missionary St. Junipero Serra will be among the figures removed from a prominent location near San Francisco City Hall after the city’s art commission unanimously voted to remove the statue March 5.
The bronze statue, titled “Early Days,” shows three figures: a Native American sitting at the feet of English seafarer Francis Drake and of Serra, the eighteenth-century Spanish missionary who founded the missions at the center of many Californian cities.
St. Junipero’s statue is shown bending down, looking at the Native American with his palm facing downward. The statue’s other arm is stretched skyward, with a finger pointing to the heavens.
The statue is part of a larger bronze and granite Pioneer Monument.
According to the San Francisco Examiner, an arts commission memo said people had called for the statue to be removed because “the allegorical sculpture’s depiction of the degradation and genocide of Native American peoples, utilizing visual stereotypes common at the turn of the twentieth century to depict all Native Americans which are now universally viewed as disrespectful, misleading, and racist.”
Pope Francis canonized the friar in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 23, 2015.
“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. “Mistreatment and wrongs which today still trouble us, especially because of the hurt which they cause in the lives of many people.”
“Junípero Serra left his native land and its way of life,” the Pope continued. “He was excited about blazing trails, going forth to meet many people, learning and valuing their particular customs and ways of life. He learned how to bring to birth and nurture God’s life in the faces of everyone he met; he made them his brothers and sisters.”
That same year, some California legislators had sought to replace a statue of Junipero Serra in the National Statuary Hall in Washington with a statue of Sally Ride, the first woman astronaut in space. Pope Francis visited that statue of Serra.
The San Francisco statue was completed in 1894 by the American sculptor Frank H. Happersberger. The costs to remove it could run from $160,000 to $200,000. It will be placed in storage.
The latest push to remove the saint’s statue followed the August 2017 protests in Charlottesville, Va. over the removal of a Confederate statue, which attracted neo-Confederate and far-right activists. One counter-protester was killed and several injured when a supporter of the statue drove his car into a crowd.
In February the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission backed the removal of the statue so long as it is replaced with a plaque explaining the removal.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sep 29, 2017 / 04:58 pm (ACI Prensa).- The Puerto Rican bishops’ conference issued a message of hope to Puerto Ricans after Hurricanes Irma and Maria destroyed much of the U.S. territory this summer.
In the letter, published on Sept. 27, the bishops of Puerto Rico said that the destruction “fills us with pain and suffering, especially when we see so many tears, and so much anguish in the faces of our people.”
On Sept. 6, Hurricane Irma passed through northern Puerto Rico, though it did not directly impact the whole island. However, on Sept. 20, Hurricane Maria directly hit the island as a Category 4 storm, leaving at least 16 dead. The hurricanes have left much of the island without water and electricity, and have led to widespread shortages of gasoline and food.
Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rosselló, told local media that these storms are “Puerto Rico’s biggest catastrophe…in terms of damage to infrastructure.”
Reuters reported that the storms had left an estimated $30 billion in material losses.
The Puerto Rican bishops praised the faithful for maintaining “…order and respect for neighbors, the law and the property of others.”
They added that the two massive hurricanes show the urgency of the need to address climate change.
“We understand that we cannot act as before and continue like this,” they said.
The bishops noted that the only way for the island to “be reborn” is by clinging to the “love of Christ.”
“From his cross and his pain, our hope is reborn,” they wrote.
The bishops’ conference also recommended that the Puerto Rican people adopt three attitudes: “to rebuild, rediscover, and have a reunion with Jesus.”
The bishops stressed that as people rebuild houses, churches or roads, they also need to repair “the damage that does not allow us to grow as a people and to progress as a nation.”
“Let us overcome the barriers, selfishness and divisions that may exist between us, and unite to rebuild our homeland, which shines with the beautiful, noble and Christian values that live in our hearts, and spring from our identity,” they said.
“Jesus comes to meet us, calms the storm and give us confidence. He invites us to walk towards Him, takes us by the hand and will not let us sink, so that we can say: ‘Everywhere we are pressed, but not crushed.’”
The bishops promised to provide financial aid to the most affected dioceses and offered prayers for the victims of the storm. They also thanked local authorities and rescuers for their work.
“In these days, where basic resources are scarce, especially light and water, let us enter into personal and community prayer with the Lord,” they said, and urged everyone to continue their “gestures of solidarity with those brothers and sisters in need.”
The full press release in Spanish can be found here.
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
JD Vance speaks at a film screening event April 1, 2025, at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Zelda Caldwell/National Catholic Register
National Catholic Register, Apr 2, 2025 / 17:03 pm (CNA).
Vice President JD Vance hailed… […]
Saint Peter’s Chapel and Native American Museum at Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda, New York. / Photo courtesy of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site
Chicago, Ill., Jul 13, 2023 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
Shrines to various saints can be found in every part of the world, including every state in the U.S. Each one is dedicated to faith and prayer, but one shrine in the northeastern United States also has a distinct mission of connecting pilgrims with Native American culture and sharing the fascinating history of Kateri Tekakwitha, the first American Indian to be canonized a saint.
The Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda, New York, honors not only the life of St. Kateri, whose feast day is July 14, but also the life and history of the local Indigenous people to whom she belonged.
“We have cultivated strong ties to both the Catholic Mohawk community and the traditional Mohawk community,” said Melissa Miscevic Bramble, director of operations at the St. Kateri Shrine, in an interview with CNA. “We see it as our mission to educate about her Mohawk culture as well as her Catholic faith.”
Who was St. Kateri?
Called the Lily of the Mohawks, Kateri Tekakwitha was the child of a Mohawk father and a Christian Algonquin mother but was orphaned at age 4 when the rest of her family died of smallpox. Her own early bout with the illness left lasting scars and poor vision.
She went to live with an anti-Christian uncle and aunt, but at age 11 she encountered Jesuit missionaries and recognized their teaching as the beliefs of her beloved mother. Desiring to become a Christian, she began to privately practice Christianity.
Beginning at about age 13, she experienced pressure from her family to marry, but she wanted to give her life to Jesus instead. A priest who knew her recorded her words: “I have deliberated enough. For a long time, my decision on what I will do has been made. I have consecrated myself entirely to Jesus, son of Mary, I have chosen him for husband, and he alone will take me for wife.”
At last, she was baptized at about age 19, and her baptism made public her beliefs, which had been kept private up until then. The event was the catalyst for her ostracism from her village. Some members of her people believed that her beliefs were sorcery, and she was harassed, stoned, and threatened with torture in her home village.
Tekakwitha fled 200 miles to Kahnawake, a Jesuit mission village for Native Amerian converts to Christianity to live together in community. There, she found her mother’s close friend, Anastasia Tegonhatsiongo, who was a clan matron of a Kahnawake longhouse. Anastasia and other Mohawk women took Kateri under their wings and taught her about Christianity, and she lived there happily for several years until her death around age 23 or 24.
Although she never took formal vows, Tekakwitha is considered a consecrated virgin, and the United States Association of Consecrated Virgins took her as its patron. She is also the patron saint of traditional ecology, Indigenous peoples, and care for creation.
A shrine with a special mission
The Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site has a unique mission of archaeological and historical research related to Kateri Tekakwitha and her people. Welcoming several thousand visitors per year, the shrine ministers not only to Christians but also to all American Indians.
According to its website, the shrine and historic site “promotes healing, encourages environmental stewardship, and facilitates peace for all people by offering the natural, cultural, and spiritual resources at this sacred site.” Describing itself as a sacred place of peace and healing with a Catholic identity, its ministry and site are intended to be ecumenical and welcome people of all faiths.
In keeping with this mission, the shrine’s grounds include an archaeological site, the village of Caughnawaga, which is the only fully excavated Iroquois/Haudenosaunee village in the world. St. Kateri lived in this village, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors can also visit the Kateri Spring, where Kateri Tekakwitha was baptized.
“The water from the Kateri Spring is considered holy water by the Catholic Church,” Bramble said. “People are welcome to come take the waters, and we regularly get reports of healing. We’ve sent that water all over North America to folks who have requested it.”
Besides the archaeological site, the main grounds of the shrine include St. Peter’s Chapel, housed in a former Dutch barn built in 1782; museum exhibits of Native American culture and history; St. Maximilian Kolbe Pavilion; a Candle Chapel dedicated to St. Kateri; Grassmann Hall and the Shrine office; a friary; a gift shop; an outdoor sanctuary; and maintenance facilities. The 150-acre property includes hiking trails that are open to the public year-round from sunrise to sunset.
Peace Grove at Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda, New York. Photo courtesy of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine and Historic Site
Outside the Candle Chapel, which is always open for prayer, visitors can participate in a ministry of “Kateri crosses.”
“St. Kateri was known for going into the forest, gathering sticks, binding them into crosses, and then spending hours in prayer in front of crosses she created,” Bramble said. Sticks are gathered from the shrine grounds and visitors are invited to make their own “Kateri crosses” and take them home to use as a prayer aid. Bramble shared that the shrine sends materials for Kateri crosses to those who aren’t able to visit, including recently to a confirmation group.
The feast day weekend
The Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine has a schedule of special events planned for St. Kateri’s feast day on July 14. Bramble said they anticipate several hundred visitors for the feast day events this year, which include Masses, a healing prayer service, and talks. (A listing of the full schedule can be found here.)
The weekend Masses, which include special blessings and the music of the Akwesasne Mohawk Choir, “incorporate American Indian spiritual practices in keeping with the Catholic Church,” Bramble said. “The Akwesasne Mohawk Choir is made up of descendants of St. Kateri’s community who lived in the area historically.”
Bramble described numerous events each year that partner with the local American Indian community, such as the fun-filled “Three Sisters Festival” in May (celebrating corn, beans, and squash — the “three sisters” that were staples of Native cuisine), healing Masses during Indigenous Peoples’ Week in October, and a recent interfaith prayer service with Mohawk elders.
“There is a reestablished traditional Mohawk community a few miles west of the shrine, and we feel very blessed that we’ve been able to cultivate a very cooperative and mutually respectful relationship with the folks there,” Bramble said.
The Saint Kateri Shrine is also a great place for families. Events often include activities and crafts for children, there is an all-ages scavenger hunt available at the site, and the shrine’s museum is “a phenomenal educational opportunity.”
Bringing together American Indian archaeology and history with the story of St. Kateri, the shrine and its programs shed light on the saint’s story and keep alive the traditions and history of her people.
Leave a Reply