Father Moholy Paving Way for Serra’s Beatification

When Father Noel Francis Moholy signed on 30 years ago to lead the sainthood campaign for Father Junipero Serra, it was surely a match made in heaven.

Many of the same adjectives used by contemporaries and historians to describe Serra, the 18th-Century missionary known as “the Apostle of California,” apply equally to fellow Franciscan Moholy: tough, dogged, stubborn and determined.

Moholy, 72, intends to be in Rome on Sept. 25 when Pope John Paul II declares Serra beatified, the second of three steps to sainthood. The process accelerated in 1984 when the pontiff declared Serra “venerable.” The Vatican approved the beatification earlier this year after determining that a St. Louis nun was cured miraculously of the nerve disease lupus 25 years ago after praying for Serra’s help.

Officially called the candidate’s vice postulator, Moholy spent the weekend with Father Paul Martin, head of Mission San Juan Capistrano, which Serra founded in 1776, planning a special service in English and Spanish to be held to coincide with the Sept. 25 Mass in Rome. A larger-than-life, wooden sculpture of Serra, by the Spanish artist Juan de Avalos, is awaiting space in the mission’s new church.

“There should be a celebration that day in all California churches,” the gray-haired friar said, “but above all in the missions.” In fact, Moholy has been visiting California missions up and down the coast making similar preparations.

Over the years, the former theology professor has rarely missed an opportunity to advance Serra’s “cause,” as it is known in the church.

“For a goodly portion of that time I was almost a lone voice crying in the wilderness,” Moholy said. “If I’d have abandoned the cause it probably would have been dropped or postponed indefinitely. I was a bulldog. I got my teeth in it and I wouldn’t give up.”

Moholy frequently quotes Serra’s motto, “Always go forward, never turn back,” and refers to the Majorcan priest who founded missions from San Diego to San Francisco as “the old man.”

Despite his own advancing age and serious heart trouble, the savvy San Francisco native has traveled the world from his church apartment in the Tenderloin, lobbying tirelessly for everything from stamps to statues, co-authoring a popular biography--anything to keep Serra in the public eye while the complex ecclesiastical process continued. The license plate on the nearly itinerant Franciscan’s car even reads “SERRA.”

Corridors of Power

In the process of building public and government support for Serra, Moholy has become as familiar with the corridors of power in Sacramento and Washington as the more ancient ones of the Vatican. When it comes to dealing with the church hierarchy evaluating Serra’s cause, Moholy acknowledges that he has often been outranked, but rarely outflanked.

Moholy’s dedication to the Serra cause is most recently embodied in the tour he has organized to Rome for the beatification. Among those he is taking are two terminally ill people who have been praying for Serra to intercede on their behalf. To move from beatified to canonized, Serra needs one more verified miracle, unless the Pope dispenses with the requirement.

“We need another miracle and here are a couple of cases,” Moholy said. He plans to initiate a prayer campaign today on the pair’s behalf at Mission San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel, where Serra is buried, timed to coincide with the 204th anniversary of the missionary’s death.

The two are Brendan O’Rourke, a 5-year-old AIDS sufferer from San Francisco, and Sister Ann Clare Johnson from San Jose, who is terminally ill with cancer. The pair traveled together to Lourdes in May.

O’Rourke, who was born prematurely, contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion and has been taking AZT, Moholy said. The boy caught the Pope’s eye last fall at Mission San Francisco de Asis and was picked up and embraced by the pontiff. His condition is stable. Johnson, who is in her early 30s, recently took her final vows to become a member of the Dominican Sisters, after seven years in the order.

“This is not a public relations gimmick,” said Moholy, who is recruiting “angels” to pay their fares. “We’re just trying to get our message across so people will pray for Serra’s help.”

Over the last two years, the sainthood drive has been dogged by charges that the California mission system--which Serra founded in 1769 and led for 15 years--had a devastating effect on the state’s Indians.

From that period on, thousands of Indians died as a result of exposure to European diseases. Many endured forced labor in building and maintaining the missions and presidios. Some were subjected to physical punishment for disciplinary infractions or for trying to leave the missions.

Moholy, together with Bishop Thaddeus Shubsda of Monterey, aggressively replied to these charges, citing religious and secular historical sources. Nonetheless, the Vatican did not--as widely expected--approve the beatification in time for last September’s visit by the Pope to the Carmel mission. Small demonstrations by Indian activists took place near the mission during the Pope’s visit anyway, and during the visit of the king and queen of Spain last October.

Anger Will Increase

Earlier this year, the American Indian Historical Society in San Francisco published a collection of essays critical of Serra. Jeanette Costo, a member of the society and a Cherokee who was reared in the Catholic Church, said: “This is not sanctification. This is just beatification. . . . The only thing that will happen now is that the anger of the Indian people will continue and increase, and the possibility of resistance to this, and an explanation of what really happened here will gain momentum.”

To blunt these charges, the media-wise Moholy said that the first two American Indian bishops in the Catholic Church have also joined his tour to Rome. They are Bishop Donald E. Pelotte of Gallup, N. M., and Bishop Charles J. Shaput, newly installed as bishop of Rapid City, S.D. Moholy also has arranged for an Ohlone seminarian from the Carmel area, Andrew Galvan, to participate in the beatification Mass.

The bishops’ presence on the tour, Moholy said, is “to show there is unity in the church in America, that there’s no real Catholic objection among Indians to Serra’s beatification, that they are 100% behind him. . . . We’re showing the positive side by taking these two Indians with us.”

Meanwhile, Moholy vows to continue his mission of carrying Serra to sainthood. “As long as life lasts, I’ll do all I can to promote him.”