CALIFORNIA
Breitbart News
by WILLIAM BIGELOW
2 Feb 20151
Parishioners praying Sunday Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday were confronted by one dozen demonstrators protesting the Pope’s decision to canonize Father Junipero Serra.
Carrying signs picturing Archbishop Jose Gomez, the head of the Los Angeles Arcgdiocese, as Adolf Hitler, with a toothbrush mustache and a swastika medallion, as well as other signs depicting Serra with a halo adorned with a swastika, the group marched straight to the gates of the cathedral.
Olin Tezcatlipoca, director of the Mexica Movement, told the Los Angeles Times that Serra committed “genocide” against the indigenous Spanish people. He added, “Serra set up forced labor camps, death camps. Women and children were raped the same way as the pedophile priests, and the church has hidden that.” He said Gomez refused to meet with the group.
Gomez has called Serra, who instituted the mission system in California, one of his “spiritual heroes,” and said his canonization is a “gift to California and the Americas.” In 1988, Pope John Paul II called Serra a “shining example of Christian Virtue and the Missionary Spirit.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.