The Faithful Go Marching In for Serra Sainthood

As they passed a wooden staff topped with a cross from one marcher to another Saturday, members of the procession likened their 30-mile trek to the Olympic torch relay across America.

“What does the torch relay do? It builds patriotism,” Frank Jacobowitz said. “What does our walk do? It builds faith.”

The daylong walk started at the mission in San Gabriel and ended at the mission in San Fernando. The hikers were members of the Knights of Columbus, a Roman Catholic fraternal organization, which has organized a march to each of California’s 21 missions. The walks are expected to draw thousands of church members.

The event is part of a campaign to persuade the Vatican to declare Father Junipero Serra, the tireless Franciscan friar who founded the mission chain and brought Christianity to California, the state’s first saint.

The march is tracing Serra’s steps across California. Saturday’s leg began shortly after dawn when a group of 30 men and women gathered near the huge weathered, brick church of the San Gabriel Mission. Then they set off, carrying an American flag and two purple banners emblazoned with “Knights of Columbus” in yellow letters.

“If this were in any other country I suppose you would call it a pilgrimage,” Jacobowitz said. “But here in the United States we call it a march.”

Alan Barasorda, who was carrying the staff as the procession passed a restaurant on San Fernando Road in Burbank, was well aware that gaining sainthood for Serra will be no easy matter. The Vatican currently is reviewing 1,000 cases.

“There are a lot of people around the world who want their own local person to be named a saint,” Barasorda said.

The campaign for canonization of Serra, one of the West Coast’s most significant historical figures, began 50 years ago.

The campaign advanced a step Feb. 12 when nine theologians in Rome, who had studied a history of Serra, unanimously voted that the “Apostle of California” lived a life exemplifying Christian virtues, said Bishop Thaddeus Shubsda of Monterey. He has been a leader of the canonization effort.

There are three steps to canonization, or sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church: veneration, beatification (becoming “blessed”) and canonization. The process can take centuries.

Approval of Serra’s biography was a major step toward his veneration, Thaddeus said. The final approval of veneration must be made by Pope John Paul II, something Thaddeus predicts will occur this summer with commemoration of the bicentennial of Serra’s death.

For a person to achieve beatification, at least one miracle must be approved by Vatican investigators. A second verified miracle is necessary for canonization.

Thaddeus said four miracles of healing attributed to Serra are under investigation.

When Serra began establishing missions in California--he built nine in his lifetime--the idea was that they were to be a day’s journey apart, all linked by El Camino Real, the King’s Highway. But modern times have complicated the trip and Saturday’s marchers had to contend with freeways, bridges and diesel trucks.

A motor home followed the procession to aid weary walkers.

The Knights of Columbus, which has 46,000 members statewide, began the march Feb. 3 simultaneously in San Diego and San Francisco.

Each Saturday, members and their families walk from one mission to another. The marchers will converge in May at Mission San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel, where Serra is buried.

The group heading for the San Fernando Mission walked briskly, leaving little time for interaction with those passed along the way. In San Gabriel, however, a man sped by on a motorcycle and shouted, “Jesus is coming.” Other motorists honked their horns.

Twenty Knights of Columbus councils participated in Saturday’s procession, one council passing the staff to the next. At the corner of San Fernando Road and San Jose Avenue in Burbank, the staff was handed to Barasorda, the Grand Knight of the Montebello council.

“I’m trying to pretend I am walking this path 200 years ago,” Barasorda said as he passed a mountain of debris in a lot slated for redevelopment in Burbank. “But you know, you just can’t do it. At least the mountains have always been there.”

“At least Father Sera never had to jaywalk,” another marcher said as he and a colleague cut across San Fernando Road. “Do you think he ever got lost on his way to a mission?”

“Sure he did,” the other marcher replied. “He would probably be surprised to see that the missions are still here.”

Hours later, rain pelted the final group of 12 men who walked the last two miles to the San Fernando Mission. But as they reached the building, the storm clouds parted and a rainbow appeared.

Don La Venture of Monterey Park had walked the entire way. He stepped up his pace when he heard the mission bells ringing a greeting to the marchers.

“I just decided if Father Sera could do it, well, I’d give it a try too,” La Venture said. “If we are having a hard time in the rain on paved roads, imagine what it must have been like back then. I hope this helps, I sure hope this helps him get the sainthood.”

Next weekend, a new group of marchers will carry the wooden staff, and the Serra sainthood campaign, on to the San Buenaventura Mission in Ventura.