ROME
The Tablet (UK)
Ahead of canonisation Francis says controversial missionary priest defended the indigenous peoples against abuses by colonisers
People seem to enjoy finding the shortcomings of candidates for sainthood like Blessed Junipero Serra, but they should ask themselves if they would have his generosity and courage to leave everything behind to care for the poor and bring them the Gospel, Pope Francis said.
Visiting the Pontifical North American College, the US seminary in Rome, Pope Francis insisted Blessed Serra fits into a host of saints who shaped the history and culture of the Americas, particularly by spreading Christianity, caring for the poor and defending the oppressed.
The Pope’s Mass on Saturday with 250 seminarians from more than 100 US dioceses, as well as Australia and Canada, came at the end of a symposium on Blessed Serra organised by the seminary, the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Knights of Columbus.
Although the college is on the Janiculum Hill overlooking the Vatican, Pope Francis’ was the first papal visit to the campus since 1980, when St John Paul II went.
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