Pope Francis canonizes 18th-century missionary as part of first Mass in US

Pope Francis elevated California missionary Junipero Serra to sainthood in the first U.S. canonization ceremony after spending his morning in Washington D.C. speaking on the White House lawn alongside President Obama.

 

Francis arrived at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in the popemobile before a crowd of 25,000 after switching from his now-famous Fiat.

 

Several thousand of the 25,000 tickets to the event were set aside for Spanish-speaking people, many from California. A temporary sanctuary was erected outdoors for the Mass.

 

Serra was a Franciscan friar who marched north from Baja, California with Spanish conquistadors, establishing nine of the 21 missions in what is now California.

 

The canonization was polarizing, as Serra is revered by Catholics for his missionary work, and many Latinos in the U.S. view his canonization as a badly needed acknowledgment of Hispanics’ role in the American church.

 

Many Native Americans, however, say Serra enslaved converts and contributed to the spread of disease that wiped out indigenous populations. In July, Francis issued a broad apology for the church’s sins against indigenous peoples.

 

In his homily on Wednesday, Francis defended Serra, characterizing him as a kind and open-hearted man who protected Native Americans from colonizers.

 

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