Pope Approves Beatification of Father Serra

Pope John Paul II on Friday approved the beatification of 18th-Century missionary Father Junipero Serra, advancing the controversial “apostle of California” one step closer to sainthood.

The papal action endorsed a formal finding last week by Vatican investigators that Serra’s intercession was responsible for curing an American nun of a serious neurological disorder.

No date has been set for Serra’s beatification ceremony, but members of his Franciscan order here and a diocesan spokesman in Monterey said they expected that the two-hour Mass would take place at St. Peter’s Basilica next July during a visit of California bishops.

“I am grateful to God and to all the people who have worked so diligently in Rome and in this country on the cause of Father Serra,” said Bishop Thaddeus Shubsda of Monterey. “I am personally convinced of the holiness of Father Serra and I will pray that God continues to impart blessings through the intercession of Father Serra.”

The Spanish-born Franciscan was one of eight candidates presented to the Pope on Friday by Cardinal Pietro Palazzini, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints. None of the other seven candidates approved by the Pope lived or worked in the United States.

Beatification is the second of three steps to Roman Catholic sainthood. Serra, whom John Paul declared “venerable” in 1985, will be entitled to the label “blessed” after next year’s Vatican ceremony.

One Step to Go

In order to take the final step to become California’s first saint, the Vatican must conclude that a second miracle occurred as a result of Serra’s intercession, although the Pope may dispense with this requirement. And before canonization, a candidate’s life and writings are again studied to ensure that everything is in conformity with church doctrine.

Serra, who founded California’s system of missions, died in Carmel in 1784. The Pope visited his grave there during his U.S. trip last September.

American Indian groups have strongly opposed honors for Serra, charging that the mission system physically and culturally annihilated local Indian populations. The system brought the Indians to slavery through baptism, Indian academics and activists have charged, and historians say that Franciscans under Serra’s authority disciplined Indian converts with whips and chains. As recently as Nov. 29, 20 Costanoan Indians and supporters demonstrated at the Carmel Mission against the beatification.

‘Legacy of Genocide’

Rupert Costo, co-editor of “The Missions of California: A Legacy of Genocide,” called the Vatican’s decision “repugnant to all Indian people whose ancestors were imprisoned by the missions of California, founded by Serra.”

Costo said that the American Indian Historical Society, which he founded, would work to reverse the Vatican’s finding on Serra, and he called on Indians to boycott any beatification ceremonies.

“Our land was stolen, our race was defiled, thousands of our people were killed, our languages were forbidden,” Costo said. “These are the facts about Serra’s missions, facts that are engraved in historic records.” But Father Francis Guest, archivist at Mission Santa Barbara and an expert on Serra, said he was glad to hear of the Vatican’s decision.

“As a historian,” Guest said, “I have found nothing in Serra’s life or career that would prevent his ultimate beatification. He led a holy life, a life of complete dedication to his missionary work in which he was totally unselfish and disinterested. He loved the Indians and he did everything he could, not only for their spiritual welfare, but also for their material welfare.”

Different Standards

Guest and other Serra supporters have argued that it is unfair to judge the 18th-Century missionary’s treatment by 20th-Century standards. Corporal punishment was common in rural Spain during the period, and thus it was not unusual that the Franciscans should have used it to discipline the Indian converts. The idea that non-Christian, indigenous culture must be totally rejected in order to embrace Christianity was also widely accepted within the church.

In Carmel and also during a meeting with Indian leaders in Phoenix, John Paul lauded Serra as a figure who “deserves special mention.” The church had committed “mistakes and wrongs” in its treatment of the Indians, the Pope acknowledged but noted that Serra frequently clashed with civil authorities in Spanish California on the Indians’ behalf, even presenting in 1773 a so-called Indian Bill of Rights to the viceroy in Mexico City.

Petition to Rome

Archbishop Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles has taken the extraordinary but not unprecedented step of petitioning Rome to allow two new parishes, in Camarillo and near Palmdale, to be called Blessed Junipero Serra, according to diocesan sources. Mahony was en route from Washington to Los Angles on Friday and could not be reached for comment.

“This is more than just the usual member of the Catholic family,” said Bishop Norman F.McFarland, of the Diocese of Orange. “We still hear the footsteps of Serra on the Camimo Real. He is one of us, a Californian.”

McFarland said he felt a special connection to Serra, who founded Mission San Juan Capistrano and Mission Dolores in San Francisco, both in 1776. The bishop was assigned to Mission Dolores in the 1970s, before being sent to head the Diocese of Reno-Las Vegas.

McFarland said he had not been planning to attend the July gathering of California bishops in Rome but was now reconsidering. The meeting, known as the ad limina , brings rotating groups of presiding bishops to Rome every five years to report on their dioceses. But since McFarland has only been in Orange County for a year, he was not required to attend.

With the beatification in prospect, he said, “I would surely like to be there.”

A 10-man board from the congregation last week approved evidence assembled by the Franciscans to show that Sister Mary Boniface Dyrda of St. Louis had been cured in 1960 of lupus, a chronic and life-threatening inflammatory disease of the connective tissue, through Serra’s intervention.

“All I know is that I was very sick, I was dying, and I was cured through the intervention of Junipero Serra,” the nun said earlier this year, a few weeks before her 71st birthday.

Dyrda said Friday from St. Louis that she was surprised by the announcement.

“At this time of the year with all the celebration, it’s exciting,” she said in a telephone interview. “I can’t believe it’s all coming at the same time.”

Still in Good Health

Dyrda, who traveled to Carmel for the Pope’s visit, said she was in good health and “if I feel the way I do now” in July, she would like to attend the beatification Mass, although that decision would be up to her order.

After the congregation approved the miracle, Father Noel Francis Moholy, Serra’s chief U.S. backer, said from Rome that the finding was “surely a triumph for all who have cooperated in this effort.”

During the beatification Mass, said Msgr. Robert Sarno, an American priest working at the congregation in Rome, the presiding bishop of the candidate’s diocese--in this case Shubsda--approaches the Pope and formally requests the beatification. At the moment the pontiff pronounces the beatification, a large banner with the candidate’s likeness is unfurled.

It is possible, Sarno said, that Serra’s beatification Mass will be held in conjunction with several other candidates. But it is unlikely that any of these would be Americans, such as Mother Katherine Drexel of Philadelphia, or Father Damien DeVeuster of Hawaii--both of whom have been declared venerable--Sarno said.

Sarno cautioned that the process moving a candidate from beatification to canonization can be much longer than the elevation from venerable to beatified, as evidenced by the scheduled canonization of Blessed Rose Philippine Duchesne, also planned for Rome in July. Duchesne, who was born in France but spent much of her life along the Mississippi River and died in St. Louis, was beatified in 1940.

William D. Montalbano reported from Vatican City and Mark I. Pinsky from California.