ROME
The Gazette
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis on Saturday praised the zeal of an 18th-century Franciscan missionary he will make a saint when he visits the United States this fall but whom Native Americans contend brutally converted indigenous people to Christianity.
Francis praised Junipero Serra during a homily at a Rome seminary training future priests from North America. The pope will proclaim the Spaniard a saint during a Washington, D.C., ceremony Sept. 23.
Native Americans have protested in California, saying the friar should be criticized for what they contend is his role in wiping out native populations in a brutal campaign to impose Catholicism. They contend he enslaved converts.
Francis described Serra as part of a missionary corps who “went out to all the geographical, social and existential peripheries” to spread the Gospel.
“Such zeal excites us,” Francis said.
Without wading into specific criticisms of Serra, Francis said of these missionaries: “Sometimes we stop and thoughtfully examine their strengths and, above all, their weaknesses and shortcomings.”
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