cancel culture – Missions1769.com

Where Does the Statue Controversy End?

(originally published Oct. 26, 2017 in Catholic San Francisco)

The San Francisco Arts Commission voted unanimously on October 2 to recommend to the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission the possible removal of the “Early Days” sculpture of the Pioneer Monument”. One of the three figures on the sculpture is a Franciscan priest. The timing of the push to remove the “Early Days” statue of the Pioneer Monument in San Francisco coincided with the removal of Confederate statues in the South, anti-Columbus Day news, when many were celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month, and the recent vandalism of memorials of the 18th century Franciscan, Saint Junípero Serra, who brought Catholic Christianity to California. Are those demanding removal of “Early Days” barking up the wrong tree?

Saint Junípero Serra, the founder of the California missions knew history and wanted to distance himself from the conquistadors and encomienda system. He wanted to change hearts and minds with the Gospel, not the sword. His heroics were recognized by the monument’s benefactors in 1894 with a portrait medallion near the “Early Days” statue. Dr. George Yagi, Jr., professor of history at San Joaquin Delta College, is not the first to argue how Junípero Serra defended the California Mission Indians against Spanish military abuse. Like any institution, the California missions had its saints and sinners and all types in-between. The greatest tragedy was an unintended consequence of the cultural exchange—the majority of the Mission Indians died due to diseases to which they had no immunity.

The plaque “California Native Americans” added in 1994 to the Pioneer Monument rightly notes that pre-contact with Europeans, the California Indian population was estimated to be 300,000. Historian James A. Sandos argued in Converting California that the overall population dropped 21 percent by 1830, just before Mexico took possession of California. Regarding the Indians in the area of mission influence, he notes from 1770-1830, the population declined from 65,000 to 17,000, a loss of 74 percent. Scholar Barry Pritzer estimates by the end of the 19th century there were 15,000 California Indians. Therefore, the near annihilation of the California Indians came during the Gold Rush from the 49ers and with the blessing of the government of California. The native got in the way of so-called progress and genocide ensued.

Accusation does not mean guilt. California Mission history is complex and generalizations, when looking at any history, should be avoided. It would be crazy to believe that all Pueblo Indians were bad because of Popé, the religious leader who headed the Pueblo Revolt in 1680 that killed 400 Spanish and relocated 2,000 settlers. Yet Popé has been honored with a statue in Washington, D.C.

If city officials are really set on righting a wrong of history, maybe they should demand that the San Francisco 49ers change its name. If they are really serious about removing offensive monuments, then they should consider the Monument to the Lincoln Brigade. The Republican forces (the side they fought for) in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) murdered 6,844 Catholic clerics and religious.

Yale University historian David Blight, an expert on slavery, and other historians presented a very sensible criteria when judging historical monuments:

“ . . . discussions [should] weigh many factors, among them: the history behind when and why the monument was built. Where it’s placed. The subject’s contribution to society weighed against the alleged wrongdoing. And the artistic value of the monument itself.”

Maybe this will help the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission avoid politicization when it comes to the fate of the “Early Days” statue of the Pioneer Monument.

PC: Joshua Sabatini, San Francisco *Examiner*, Mar 5, 2018.

_____
Christian Clifford is a veteran Catholic school teacher and author of three books about Catholic Church History in Spanish and Mexican California. Clifford’s writings have appeared in Aleteia, California Teacher, Catholic San Francisco, Catholic Standard, Crux, Patheos, and Today’s Catholic Teacher. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and son. For more information, visit www.Missions1769.com.

Catholics (and people of good will) should not fear Junípero Serra High School’s name change

California missions

The year 2020 was a tough one, even for a Catholic saint. Junípero Serra, the 18th-century Spanish priest who Pope Francis called “the evangelizer of the west in the United States”, has been taking it in the chin lately. Vandalism of public statues of Junípero Serra have taken place by angry mobs and desecrated on Catholic church property. The latest attack was a character assassination of him by the San Francisco (California) Board of Education’s School Renaming Committee calling him a “Colonizer and slaveowner” (see Jan. 28, 2021 Mission Local article here). No evidence was provided. No historians questioned. This begs the question, will 2021 be any better for Serra? Things looked up for friends of Serra when the head of the man who brought revolutionary ideas to this part of the world was taken off the proverbial chopping block by the San Francisco Unified School District. However, the executioners in San Diego were successful in stripping his name from a public high school. Little did they know that they did so almost to the day 248 years after Serra demanded justice for indigenous people (on March 13, 1773, after Serra’s lobbying, Viceroy Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa signed into law the Representación).

There is no denying that cultural exchange came at a cost. Pre-contact with Europeans, the California Indian population was estimated to be 300,000. Historian James A. Sandos argued in Converting California that the overall population dropped 21 percent by 1830, just before Mexico took possession of California. Regarding the Indians in the area of mission influence, he notes from 1770-1830, the population declined from 65,000 to 17,000, a loss of 74 percent. Scholar Barry Pritzer estimates by the end of the 19th century there were 15,000 California Indians. Therefore, the near annihilation of the California Indians came during the Gold Rush from the 49ers and with the blessing of the government of California. Serra, wrongly, is the poster boy for all of this to some.

Serra did not want pueblos, because he knew the history of the encomienda system. He wrote to medical authorities asking how to help sick Mission Indians (the vaccine for smallpox was introduced in 1796 by Jenner and the horrid disease was not even eradicated until December 1979). Serra, nearly dying along the way, went to the viceroy in Mexico City to lay out his frustrations regarding the maltreatment of natives by soldiers. On March 13, 1773, Serra and Viceroy Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa signed into law the Representación that included disciplinarian measures for Mission Indians be put in the hands of the priests, not the military. Serra also taught the Mission Indian in Spanish due to the fact that they came from tribelets that spoke different languages. What he wanted for them to believe about each other was what he believed about them, as captured in his February 26, 1777 letter to Father Francisco Pangua, O.F.M., his guardian in Mexico City: “They are in places one cannot visit without walking a long distance and sometimes going on hands and feet, but I put my trust in the Lord, who created them.”

When it comes to Serra, the Catholic Church is confident of his noteworthiness.

His life has been studied and researched with a fine-tooth comb. The ecclesial court proceedings to question Serra’s holiness began on December 12, 1948. The evidence brought forth were 2,420 documents (7,500 pages total) of Serra’s writings, 5,000 pages of materials written about him from those who knew him, and testimony of people inspired by his life. A summary of findings would be collected into the Positio (position paper)—Serra’s position was 1,200 pages. The evidence propelled Pope Francis to canonize Serra on September 23, 2015 in Washington, D.C.

I propose to those who wanted Serra High School’s name changed rename it after a significant California Indian. Pablo Tac comes to mind. Never heard of him? That is a shame. His story should be taught to every school child in California. His writings are the earliest from a California Indian, written in Rome while a seminarian. The greatest recommendation I can make is to read online (free) the Writings of Junípero Serra to better understand what his vision was, motivations were, as well as his challenges, dreams, and successes.

_________

Christian Clifford is the author of books about Catholic Church history in Spanish and Mexican California. His latest, Pilgrimage: In Search of the Real California Missions, is about his 800-mile walk of the California Missions Trail. He can be reached at www.Missions1769.com.

_________

Image: Father Junipero Serra by Paul Whitman, 1933.

Saint Junípero Serra and cancel culture

California missions

Re: Hannah Holzer, “San Francisco’s Toppled Statues”, SF Weekly (July 4, 2020)

It amazes how a story that is about frustration over partial narratives does not include those of a Catholic Church historian when it comes to Junípero Serra. Aside from that, I believe the author did a good job capturing the situation where we are in regard to the vandalism of public statues of Junípero Serra (lest we forget those statues of Saint Junípero Serra desecrated four times on Catholic church property—Mission Carmel, Old Mission Santa Barbara, and at Mission San Gabriel. The front wooden doors and a side wall at Mission Santa Cruz were spray-painted in red with the message “Serra St. of Genocide”).

To me, what exactly did the author capture when it comes to Junípero Serra? Those that believe they are right taking matters into their own hands are in the process of becoming what they hate most—intolerant bullies. They have a misinformed perception of the California missions full of tyrants living in an “us versus them” world. To them, there is no gray area and they use only fear tactics and spout outright lies and half-truths. What we have seems to me reminiscent of Tolstoy’s “The Grand Inquisitor”.

The questioner in the 18th-century tale puts a man in a chair and makes inquiries into the miracles he performed. It is the ideas in the inquisitor’s mind that he cannot let go of and with each question the man being interrogated remains silent. At the heart of it is that the man asking the questions knows human freedom and that Jesus died for so many who cannot handle that gift and that the Catholic Church knows better. The man the interrogator questions is Jesus himself who returned to earth. The reader knows this but the Grand Inquisitor does not. Those who are tearing down statues of Junípero Serra are the Grand Inquisitor of today and have falsely put Serra on trial.

The Catholic Church is confident about Serra. The ecclesial court proceedings to question Serra’s holiness began on December 12, 1948. The evidence brought forth were 2,420 documents (7,500 pages total) of Serra’s writings, 5,000 pages of materials written about him from those who knew him, and testimony of people inspired by his life. A summary of findings would be collected into the Positio (position paper)—Serra’s position was 1,200 pages. The evidence propelled Pope Francis, the first pontiff from Latin America, to share in the homily at Serra’s canonization on September 23, 2015 in Washington, D.C., “Junípero sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it.”

The Catholic Church is also open. Just before the canonization, the California bishops and Franciscans promised to reappraise what people learn at the California missions. Michele Jurich wrote in her Oakland Voice article that the study would focus on “. . . the way the natives are depicted in exhibits and displays at the 19 California missions that are active Catholic parishes, and in the ways Catholic schoolchildren learn about Indians in third grade and missions in fourth grade.” The public schools already have a new framework in place that address such concerns.

The Catholic Church is also repentant for the challenges brought by colonization. Pope John Paul II begged for forgiveness on September 14, 1987, retired Bishop Francis A. Quinn of Sacramento on December 15, 2007, Pope Francis on July 9, 2015, and Auxiliary Bishop Edward Clark of Los Angeles on July 21, 2016. The most beautiful act of reconciliation, in my opinion, was that Vincent Medina, who had been outspoken against Serra, recited the first reading at the September 23, 2015 canonization Mass, in the Chochenyo Native American language.

___________

Christian Clifford is the author of books and articles about Catholic Church History in Spanish and Mexican California. For more information, visit www.Missions1769.com.