40. BITESIZE CATECHISM: ST. JUNIPERO SERRA & THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUTH IN SOCIETY

 

APPETIZER:  To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead someone into error. By its very nature, lying is to be condemned. It is a profanation of speech, whereas the purpose of speech is to communicate known truth to others.  The culpability is greater when the intention of deceiving entails the risk of deadly consequences for those who are led astray. Since it violates the virtue of truthfulness, a lie does real violence to another. It affects his ability to know, which is a condition of every judgment and decision. It contains the seed of discord and all consequent evils. Lying is destructive of society; it undermines trust among men and tears apart the fabric of social relationships.  Within modern society the communications media play a major role in information, cultural promotion, and formation. This role is increasing, as a result of technological progress, the extent and diversity of the news transmitted, and the influence exercised on public opinion.The information provided by the media is at the service of the common good.  Society has a right to information based on truth, freedom, justice, and solidarity.  By the very nature of their profession, journalists have an obligation to serve the truth and not offend against charity in disseminating information. They should strive to respect, with equal care, the nature of the facts and the limits of critical judgment concerning individuals. They should not stoop to defamation. (See CCC #2475-2499)

MAIN COURSE:   As the Appetizer says quoting the Catechism, social lies lead to social violence and to the destruction of society. We see this happening as even journalists in our nation perpetuate lies about political and historical persons and events. There is so much misunderstanding and even outright lies told about St. Junipero Serra that I thought this letter which the Archbishop of Los Angeles sent to the people of his Archdiocese would be an excellent and short way for us to learnt he truth, the historical facts. 

I understand the deep pain being expressed by some native peoples in California. But I also believe Fray Junípero is a saint for our times, the spiritual founder of Los Angeles, a champion of human rights and this country’s first Hispanic saint. I was privileged to celebrate his canonization Mass with Pope Francis in 2015. I rely on his intercession in my ministry, and I am inspired by his desire to bring God’s tender mercy to every person.

The exploitation of America’s first peoples, the destruction of their ancient civilizations, is a historic tragedy. Crimes committed against their ancestors continue to shape the lives and futures of native peoples today. Generations have passed and our country still has not done enough to make things right.  Over the years, I have come to understand how the image of Father Serra and the missions evokes painful memories for some people. For that reason, I believe the protests over our history in California, and the broader protests that have started elsewhere in the country over historical monuments, are important.

Historical memory is the soul of every nation. What we remember about our past and how we remember it defines our national identity — the kind of people we want to be, the values and principles we want to live by.  But history is complicated. The facts matter, distinctions need to be made, and the truth counts. We cannot learn history’s lessons or heal old wounds unless we understand what really happened, how it happened, and why. 

Our society may reach a consensus not to honor St. Junípero or various other figures from our past. But elected officials cannot abdicate their responsibilities by turning these decisions over to small groups of protesters, allowing them to vandalize public monuments. This is not how a great democracy should function.  Allowing the free expression of public opinion is important. So is upholding the rule of law and ensuring that decisions we reach as a society are based on genuine dialogue and the search for truth and the common good.  It is clear that those attacking St. Junípero’s good name and vandalizing his memorials do not know his true character or the actual historical record.

The sad truth is that, beginning decades ago, activists started “revising” history to make St. Junípero the focus of all the abuses committed against California’s indigenous peoples.  But the crimes and abuses that our saint is blamed for — slanders that are spread widely today over the internet and sometimes repeated by public figures — actually happened long after his death.  It was California’s first governor who called for “a war of extermination” against the Indians and called in the U.S. Cavalry to help carry out his genocidal plans. That was in 1851. St. Junípero died in 1784.

The real St. Junípero fought a colonial system where natives were regarded as “barbarians” and “savages,” whose only value was to serve the appetites of the white man. For St. Junípero, this colonial ideology was a blasphemy against the God who has “created (all men and women) and redeemed them with the most precious blood of his Son.”  He lived and worked alongside native peoples and spent his whole career defending their humanity and protesting crimes and indignities committed against them. Among the injustices he struggled against, we find heartbreaking passages in his letters where he decries the daily sexual abuse of indigenous women by colonial soldiers.

For St. Junípero, the natives were not just powerless victims of colonial brutality. In his letters, he describes their “gentleness and peaceful dispositions,” he celebrates their creativity and knowledge; he remembers little acts of kindness and generosity, even the sweet sound of their voices as they sang. He learned their languages and their ancient customs and ways. St. Junípero came not to conquer, he came to be a brother. “We have all come here and remained here for the sole purpose of their well-being and salvation,” he once wrote. “And I believe everyone realizes we love them.”

St. Junípero became one of America’s first environmentalists. He documented California’s diverse habitats in diary entries and letters where he described mountains and plains, the blazing sun and the effects of drought, the overflow of brooks and rivers, cottonwood and willow trees, roses in bloom, the roar of a mountain lion that kept the missionaries awake at night. 

St. Junípero also understood that the souls of indigenous Americans had been darkened with bitterness and rage at their historic mistreatment and the atrocities committed against them.  In 1775, when Kumeyaay attackers burned down the mission in San Diego, torturing and murdering his dear friend, Father Luís Jayme, California’s first martyr, St. Junípero was not outraged. He was concerned for the killers’ souls. He pleaded with authorities to have mercy.  “As for the culprits, their offense should be forgiven after some slight punishment,” he said. “By doing so they would see we were putting into practice the rule we teach them — to return good for evil and to pardon our enemies.” This may be the first moral argument against the use of the death penalty in American history. And St. Junípero was arguing against its imposition on an oppressed minority.

St. Junípero was 60 years old when he traveled 2,000 miles from Carmel to Mexico City to protest the injustices of the colonial system and demand that authorities adopt a “bill of rights” that he had written for the native peoples.  That was in 1773, three years before America’s founders declared this nation’s independence with those beautiful words: “all men are created equal … endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”  Pope Francis called St. Junípero “one of the founding fathers of the United States.” He recognized that the saint’s witness anticipated the great spirit of human equality and liberty under God that has come to define the American project.  Yet today we find St. Junípero compared to Adolf Hitler, his missions compared to concentration camps. No serious historian would accept this, and we should not allow these libels to be made in public arguments about our great saint.

Despite their many flaws, the California missions were similar to some of the other communes and “communitarian” societies we find in early American history.  The missions were multicultural communities of worship and work, with their own governments and a self-sustaining economy based on agriculture and handicrafts. Living and working together, Natives and Spaniards created a new, mestizo (“mixed”) culture reflected in the distinctive art, architecture, music, poetry, and prayers that came out of the missions.

It is sadly true that corporal punishment was sometimes used in the missions, as it was practiced throughout late 18th-century society. It is also true that some natives died of diseases in the missions.  But the tragic ruin of native populations occurred long after St. Junípero was gone and the missions were closed or “secularized.” Serious scholars conclude that St. Junípero himself was a gentle man and there were no physical abuses or forced conversions while he was president of the mission system.

St. Junípero did not impose Christianity, he proposed it. For him, the greatest gift he could offer was to bring people to the encounter with Jesus Christ. Living in the missions was always voluntary, and in the end just 1-20% of California’s native population ever joined him.  My brothers and sisters, this is the truth about St. Junípero.

Let us ask St. Junípero’s intercession for this nation that he helped to found. Let us pray with him for healing, reconciliation, an increase in empathy and understanding, an end to racial prejudice, and a new awareness of what it means that all men and women are created equal as children of God.  Every true reform begins in the human heart, and St. Junípero would tell us that only mercy and pardon and true contrition can move us forward at this moment in our history. (Most Reverend José H. Gomez, Archbishop of Los Angeles)

DOGGIE-BAG: A little something to take with you for spiritual snacking...

Holy Quotes

"St. Junipero Serra had a motto which inspired his life and work: 'Keep moving forward!' For him, this was the way to continue experiencing the joy of the Gospel, to keep his heart from growing numb, from being anesthetized. He kept moving forward, because the Lord was waiting. He kept going, because his brothers and sisters were waiting. He kept going forward to the end of his life. Today, like him, may we be able to say: Forward! Let’s keep moving forward!” (Pope Francis at the canonization of Junipero Serra)

Meditation on On the Mercy of God (by St. Junipero Serra)

O Lord, You are complete mercy, complete love, and complete tenderness toward all men and women, even toward the most ungrateful sinners. You wish all people to attain the ends or which You compassionately created us. You yearn that we might believe that You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and advance toward the salvation You will for us.

You are sweet and gentle, and You call us in the gentleness of Your divine voice, in the sweet and gentle tones of a Father addressing his favorite child. You extend the golden bonds of Your goodwill and love, You pardon us in your mercy.

 Father of all mercy and consolation, pour forth the abundance of Your love with mercy. By your mercy, conquer every type of malice. Help us to leave not only our faults, but the bad habits and situations in our lives which lead to these faults, that we might love You alone.

 Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening with a contrite heart. Help us to begin right now to realize the truth! To be entirely animated by love of You, Help us begin to live a holy life, with a burning love and zeal for the salvation of our neighbors. Make us more gentle, more calm, more nurturing and strong.

 Remind us of Your gentle goodwill, O Lord. May we never be severe or harsh. May we see in everyone, a child whom You have created and redeemed with the most precious blood of Your Son. Teach us to know that You value kindness, that love is the best way to attract people to You. May we always help others to taste and see the sweetness and gentleness of Your love.

 Let us bear every hardship for the love of You and the salvation of souls. In our trials, may we know that we are loved as Your own children. To a willing heart all is sweet, so grant us love and patience, and conform us always to Your will, O God.