Group Protests Planned Stamp of Missionary Serra

A church-state separation group has protested U.S. Postal Service plans to issue a stamp recognizing the work of Roman Catholic missionary priest Junipero Serra.

“The courts of this nation have uniformly held that government may not entangle itself in religion,” said Robert L. Maddox, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

“Government actions in behalf of sectarian initiatives run afoul of the First Amendment church-state separation provisions,” Maddox added in a letter to Postmaster General Paul N. Carlin earlier this week.

Serra, a Spanish priest who founded a string of Catholic missions in California in the 18th Century, is currently a candidate for beatification--the first step in the process of canonization as a saint in the Catholic Church.